
















PR ITCH AR D’S 


Choice Dialogues. 


Choice Original, Humorous, Pathetic, 
Entertaining, Instructive and 
Moral Dialogues 

For School and Public Entertainments. 

TWENTY-SIX NEW DIALOGUES 

For All Ages and for Both Sexes. 

NOT A DULL DIALOGUE 

And Yet Each Points Out a Moral. 


Contents: — Aestheticism versus Common Sense; Kindness 
Softens even Savage Hearts; Mrs. Peabody’s Boarder; Keep¬ 
ing up Appearances; Trials of a Country Editor; Adam’s Fall; 
A Cruel Hoax; Grammatical Difficulties; Labor is Honorable; 
A Search for a Wardrobe; Perils of Moderate Drinking; Hos¬ 
pitality on the Frontier; Quizzing a Quack; Be Truthful but 
Courteous; Little Pitchers; An Object Lesson; How the 
Grown Folks Minded; The Professor is Interrupted; Insect— 
A Charade; A Reunion; A Shrewd Guess; Pseudo—A Cha¬ 
rade; How the Fun Resulted. 

This is not a collection of old dialogues, hut a book of entirely 
new ones. 

By Mail, Prepaid, 25c., Three Copies, 50c., Five Copies, 75c. 

A. FLANAGAN, Chicago. 


EASY EXPERIMENTS 

FOR 

SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES, 

WITH 

HOME-MADE APPARATUS. 


t ></ 

A. R. HORNE, A. M., D. D. 

H 



REVISED AMD ENLARGED EDITION. 



CHICAGO: 

A. FLANAGAN, Publisher, 
1886. 








I 


COPYRIGHT, l886, 
BY 

A. FLANAGAN. 





CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Alcohol Lamps. g 

Ammonia. 14 

Artificial Lightning. 31 

Atmospheric Pressure.40 

Adhesion Stronger than Cohesion.45 

Alum Crystallized Ornaments.47 

Artificial Sunlight.65 

Boiling Water. 18 

Boiler Explosions. 29 

Blue Roses, To Make. 30 

Barometer. 55 

Burning Potassium on Water. 65 

Burning of Metals and Gases.. 66 

Blackboards, How to Make. 67 

Balloons, To Make. 74 

Beautiful Ornaments. 77 

Carbonic Acid. 13 

Chlorine ........ 12 

Combination of Colors. 24 

Color Top, the . 23 

Cupping.40 

Cold by Evaporation. 36 

Crystallization .... .47 

Composition of Bones.48 

Cartesian Diver. 55 

Candles, To Form Image of. 24 

Cheap Battery, How Made. 58 

Chemical Action. 64 

Colors and Inks. 71 

Curious Experiment.76 


( 3 ) 

































IV 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Defraction of Light. 24 

Distance of Thunder Clouds. 27 

Dark Color a Good Conductor. 37 

Dead Point in the Eye. 48 

Davy Safety Lamp.>.55 

Disinfectants. 58 

Decomposing a Ray of Light. 23 

Expansion by Heat. 17 

Elasticity of Air. 20 

Expansion of Air.22 

Experiments—Mirror on Pulse. 26 

on Reflection. 26 

with Candles. 37 

on Bones.50-51 

“ with Muscles. 51 

“ on Food and Drink... .. 25 

•* with Cabbage. 54 

Electrophorus, An. 41 

Electricity without Apparatus.41 

Earth’s Revolution, The. 61 

Earth’s Crust, How Broken. 29 

Earth, Why Flattened at Poles..34 

Electrical Machine, How Made.41 

Fire on Water. 14 

Fire under Water. 15 

Formation of Mountain Chains. 30 

Fine Tubes, To Make. 45 

Falling Bodies.... 46 

Foul Air in Wells and Mines.49 

Fuse. 65 

Fires for Tableaux and Exhibitions. 68 

Freckles, To Remove. 73 

Fireproof Paper.74 

Gas of Tallow Candle. 13 




































CONTENTS. 


V 


PAGE. 

Gas Bottles... io 

Gases. 14 

Green Flame.... 16 

Gravitation. 32 

Galvanic Battery... 44 

Galvanizing.44 

Geographical Experiments. 59. 

Glass, To Make. 64 

Gases, Two Form a Solid.„ .. 64 

Grease, To Remove.69 

Hydrogen. 11 

Hero’s Fountain. 21 

How Air Supports Water. 21 

Hot Water Lighter than Cold. 61 

How Water Freezes on Surface.•.62 

Hydrostatics.38 

How to Decompose Water.66 

Hair Wash, To Make. 70 

Handful of Boiling Water. 77 

Flow to See Plants Grow.77 

Home Made Humming Top. 77 

How to See Double. 78 

Illuminating Gas..•. 13 

Inertia.... 35 

Image of Candle in Water. 37 

Insulating Stools. 41 

Intermittent Springs. 30 

Illusion of the Eye. 49 

Impure Air. 49 

Inflation of Lungs. 49 

Inks. 71-72 

Ice, To Make. 75 

Ice Gun. 75 

Incombustible Thread. 77 

Lamp Explosions. 15 





































VI 


CONTENTS. 




PAGE. 

Lamp Lit with Snowball. 15 

Lenses. 25 

Lead Tree, How Made. 47 

Looking Glasses, To Make.66 

Luminous Water. 75 

Mimic Vesuvius. 3 1 

Magnetic Needles, To Make... 43 

Mountain Summits, Why Cold. 60 

Maelstroms. 61 

Molecules, Some Smaller than Others. 45 

Matches, How Made. 69 

Mucilage, To Make. 7 ° 

Nitrogen. 12 

Oxygen .. 10 

Orange Color, To Make.66 

Pneumatic Paradox. 22 

Pneumatics. 39 

Pump, The. 39 

Porosity and Impenetrability. 46 

Photographing. 63 

Pictures, How to Make. 63 

Paint, To Remove. 69 

Paper Crucible. 76 

Retorts. 10 

Red Flame....- 16 

Reflection of Light. 25 

Revolving Siphon. 57 

Rust on Plants.62 

Rainbow, To Make Artificial. 24 

Rusty Screws. To Remove. 70 

Siphons. 9 

Singing Tubes. . 12 

Spontaneous Combustion . 16 

Soda Water. 66 




































CONTENTS. Vll 

PAGE. 

Steel, To Make from Iron. 66 

Sozodont, To Make. 70 

Sound. 74. 

To Disinfect Rooms. 12 

To Bleach. 13 

Transmission of Heat.... 17 

To Freeze Tin Cup to Floor. 19 

To Shoot Tallow Candle Through Pine Plank. 35 

To Silver a Penny. 44 

Tuning Iron.44 

Temperance Lecture. 49 

Tests of the Purity of Water. 53 

Thermometer, Howto Make. 54 

Telephone..... 56 

.Tides.60 

Thunder Powder. 69 

To Measure Height of Tree. 75 

Volcanoes. 16 

Water Made to Boil with Snowball. 19 

Water in Tube. 22 

Water, To Boil in Paper Bag.40 

Will-o-the Wisp... 28 

Why Heavenly Bodies Appear Large. 29 

Well of Fire.64 

Warts, To Remove. 73 

Zinc, To Plate with Copper 


44 




























PREFACE. 


The author of these few pages on Experimentation with¬ 
out costly apparatus, has felt the want of a cheap treatise 
on the subject, giving directions to teachers and others how to 
illustrate some of the important principles of natural science, 
by simple experiments. He has waited from year to year, 
hoping that some one more competent than he might prepare 
a small volume on the subject. But while he waited in vain, 
he also felt that precious time and opportunities were lost, and 
that however imperfect, some directions of the kind here pre¬ 
sented were better than none. He has also found by experi¬ 
ence, in his school work of a quarter of a century, that there is 
nothing so well calculated to interest the young in the study 
of science, and to beget a taste for scientific research, as mak¬ 
ing these simple experiments in the schoolroom, and even 
delegating the work to some members of the school. He has 
had the satisfaction of observing how his experimenting over a 
bucket full of water, twenty-five years ago, has resulted in 
producing some of the best and most practical scientists in 
the land, who, from the day that their interest was aroused, 
in this way, in the study of science, have pursued the study 
and attained efficiency and distinction. These few pages are 
submitted to parents, teachers and pupils, in the hope that 
similar and even greater good may be accomplished by the 
circulation of this volume, than by his oral instruction and 
lectures in schools and institutes, 

We are under obligations to Prof. G. Dallas Lind, Our 
Bodies , The Scientific Ainetican , and others for assistance. 

By the Author. 


Allentown , Pa. 



HOW TO MAKE A FEW NECESSARY ARTICLES 
OF APPARATUS. 


Alcohol Lamp.—Take any ordinary bottle with a large 
mouth. Take a cork that fits the mouth of the bottle, and 
drill a hole about one-eighth of an inch in diameter through 
the cork. Get a short tin tube and fit it in the cork. Make a 
wick of cotton yarn and draw it through the tube. You have 
now made your alcohol lamp, at an expense of five cents, that 
will answer every purpose of an expensive lamp. When the 
lamp is not in use a thimble may be put over the wick to pre¬ 
vent the alcohol from escaping. 

Siphons, for illustrating principles in pneumatics, hydro¬ 
statics, and hydraulics, can be bent by heating a glass tube 
over a spirit lamp—a coal-oil lamp hardly supplies enough 
heat. Care must be taken not to bend the tube before it is 
heated sufficiently. When no glass tubes are at hand wooden 
ones can be made, or they may be made of straw, by cutting a 
round hole in the straw, or a hollow branch, near a joint, and 
fitting a short piece in. Water will rise in the siphon, when 
the short end is immersed, and the air is exhausted from the 
longer end by suction. The longer end must hang down 
lower than the surface of the water. As soon as the mouth is 
removed from the long end the water will flow out of it. The 
pressure of the air forces the water out. It will not flow out 
of the short end, nor the long one, unless it is lower than the 
surface of the water, because the pressure of the air being 
equal at both ends of the siphon, gravity will cause the water 
to flow from the siphon in the direction of the end nearest the 
earth. This experiment explains why water will not stand 
higher than 33 feet, as a column of water 33 feet high weighs 
as heavy as the column of air which balances it. 

Glass tubes of different sizes can be bought for five cents an 


ounce. 


(9) 


10 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


Retorts.—Retorts are expensive, and easily broken. It is 
much cheaper to make them. Get some 
French glass flasks, two ounce flasks. Fit 
corks to them, and after holes have been bored 
through the corks, bend glass tubes and fit 
them into the corks. In this way much 
cheaper and better retorts can be made than 
those that are bought. Besides, these flasks 
can be filled and cleaned better than the 
more expensive ones. 



Gas Bottles.—For making gases which require no heating, 
take an ordinary mineral water bottle, and fit a cork, perfo¬ 
rated by a glass tube into it. 


HOW TO EXPERIMENT WITH THE GASES. 

Oxygen.—Heat half a teaspoonful of chlorate of potash in 
a French glass flask, till the chlorate melts and gives off gas. 
This is oxygen. Oxygen does not burn, but is a 
great sustainerof combustion. There is no dan¬ 
ger in experimenting with oxygen, when not 
mixed with other gases. If oxygen is wanted to 
experiment with on a large scale, make it in a 
glass retort, or better still, in a copper retort. 

Any tinsmith can make one of copper sheeting. 

A copper, tin or glass tube can be fitted to the 
mouth of a retort by means of a cork. It can be made air¬ 
tight at the joint, so as to prevent the gas from escaping, by 
covering it with soft clay. Heat powdered chlorate of potash, 
and black oxvd of manganese, in equal parts, in a retort. The 
gas will come off freely, and can be collected in bottles or jars 
filled with water, held inverted with the mouth in a bucket or 
tub filled with water. The gas will pass from the retort tube 
into the jars and fill them, displacing the water. 

Introduce a glowing pine splint, which has just had the flame 





EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


II 


extinguished, in a small bottle full of oxygen. It will re-light 
instantly. This can be repeated a number of times, till the 
oxygen is consumed. A small piece of burning charcoal or 
phosphorus, introduced into a jar of oxygen, will burn very 
brilliantly. In burning phosphorus in oxygen, care must be 
taken to use but a small piece, half as large as a pea, to wipe it 
dry in a little tissue paper, and to hold a cork over the mouth 
of the bottle, so as to protect the hand. The bit of phospho¬ 
rus can be placed in a hollow piece of 
chalk attached to a w r ire, and touched 
with a piece of hot wire to light it the 
moment it is lowered into the jar. An old 
mainspring of a watch, which can be had of any watchmaker, 
heated and straightened, will burn with most beautiful scintil¬ 
lations of the small particles of steel, if introduced with a jar 
of oxygen, when heated red-hot at the end. A small bit of 
cork stuck to the end and then lit, heats the spring to redness 
in the oxygen. 

Hydrogen is most conveniently prepared by placing a small 
handful of nails or iron scraps in a sarsaparilla bottle, and 
pouring sulphuric acid, diluted with about twice its weight of 
water, over the nails in the bottle, until they are covered with 
acid. The hydrogen will be given off in a few minutes. A 
cork with a small glass or tin tube in it can be fitted to the 
mouth of the bottle, through which the gas will escape. Do 
not light the gas till the air is expelled, otherwise you will have 
a dangerous explosion. 

Hydrogen Gun.—Get a tinsmith to make a tube about 
seven inches long, and two inches in diameter. Have it 
closed at one end and open at the other, with a mouth large 
enough that an ordinary quart bottle cork 
will fit it. At the other end have a hole 
about the size of a pin’s head. Fill the 
gun about half with hydrogen and the other half with air. 
Hold a lighted match to the hole. You will get a report al¬ 
most as loud as that of a pistol. If a cork is fitted to the gun, 






12 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


it will fly to the farther end of the room. The hydrogen gun 
can be held over the bottle, from which the hydrogen escapes, 
and thus be filled sufficiently for shooting. 

Singing Tube.—Get a glass tube, five-eighths of an inch 
in diameter, and hold it over the hydrogen flame, produced at 
the end of an eighth inch tube. A noise similar to that pro¬ 
duced by a steam whistle will be produced. 

Nitrogen.—Nitrogen may be obtained by placing a small 
piece of phosphorus on an iron stand, or piece of iron that can¬ 
not easily tip over. Put the stand in a wash-basin partly filled 
with water. Have a candy jar at hand. Touch the phospho¬ 
rus with a lighted match, and immediately hold the jar over 
the burning phosphorus, with its mouth in the water of the 
basin. The phosphorus will burn till all the 
oxygen in the air is consumed. The nitro¬ 
gen remains. At first there will be white 
phosphoric acid fumes in the jar, but they 
will soon be absorbed by the water. The 
water will rise in the jar, showing exactly 
what proportion of the air is oxygen. The 
nitrogen, which occupies that part of the jar not filled with 
water, can now be tested. It is neutral, and a lighted candle 
will be extinguished when immersed in it. 

Chlorine gas is prepared by heating a mixture of four parts 
by weight, of salt—one of oxide of manganese, two of sul¬ 
phuric acid, and two of water. It is of a greenish color. 

When inhaled in large quantities it is poisonous. When di¬ 
luted with air, and inhaled in small doses, it is beneficial in 
cases of consumption and throat diseases. It can be prepared 
in a saucer placed on a hot stove. 

To Disinfect Rooms.—Schoolrooms, bedrooms, and sick 
rooms should be disinfected frequently, to drive out smallpox, 
diphtheria, scarlet fever, and similar evils. Make chlorine gas 
as above described. It will completely destroy all poisonous, 
infectious effluvia. 






EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


*3 


To Bleach.—Chlorine gas is the best known bleaching 
agent. Prepare it as above. Moisten the material which is to 
be bleached, and introduce it into the gas. In a few minutes 
it will be white. Colored calico, flowers, etc., can be turned 
white. 

Illuminating Gas.—Fill the bowl of a tobacco pipe with 
coal dust, turn bottom side upward, cover it with clay, and 
place it in the fire. As soon as heated, carbureted hydrogen 
gas, the same as that which is used for illuminating purposes, 
will be given off at the stem of the pipe, which can be lit. 
Bituminous coal is best. 


Another Way of Making Illuminating Gas.—Heat 
some wax in a flask till it is converted into steam. Apply a 
match; it will burn. Adapt a cork with a bent tube through 
to the mouth of a flask. The gas will escape at the end of the 
tube, and if lighted will burn in a beautiful jet. 


Still Another Way.—Mix a quantity of alcohol -with twice 
^ as much sulphuric acid, and heat the mixture in a 
retort over a lamp. Streams of gas will pour from 
the tube of the retort, which when lighted will pro¬ 
duce a gas light. Coal oil lights and tallow candles 
are gas lights. A solid must be converted into a liq¬ 
uid, and the liquid into a gas before it burns with a 
flame.. 

The Gas of a Tallow Candle.—That no flame can 
be produced till gas is formed by the material burnt, whether 
solid or liquid, can be shown by blowing out a tallow candle 
flame, and holding a light some distance from the wick into the 
gas arising from the wick. It will light, and the flame will pass 
down to the candle and light it. A tube held into the flame 
near the wick will enable the gas to pass through, so that it 
can be lit at the end. 



Carbonic Acid may be easily generated by placing a piece 
of marble in a jar containing muriatic acid, or throwing apiece 
of chalk (not crayon) into diluted sulphuric acid, in a jar. The 



14 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


intense effervescence illustrates the principle on which soda 
water is made, while the introduction of a light proves the poi¬ 
sonous character of the gas, as the light goes out the moment 
it touches the mouth of the bottle. 

Carbonic Acid Gas can be very easily generated by throwing 
a teaspoonful of baking soda into some w r ater in a jar, and 
then adding some sulphuric acid—even strong vinegar will do. 
The presence of carbonic acid can be demonstrated by holding 
a light in the jar. It will go out at once. In this way old 
wells and mines can be tested. Where a light dies out, life 
will be extinguished also. How to get rid of the carbonic acid 
of wells, is explained in connection with another experiment. 

Ammonia Qas.—Pound, in a mortar, or rub together on a 
board, a piece of unslacked lime and an equal quantity of sal- 
ammoniac. The powerful odor of ammonia, hartshorn, will 
soon be given off. 

Gases can be made in quite small quantities, by placing the 
substances from which they are generated in the bowl of a 
white clay tobacco pipe, and closing it with soft clay. The 
pipe is then placed in the fire so that the gas can escape from 
the stem, and be collected in a jar over water. 


FLAME, FIRE, EXPLOSIONS. 

Fire on Water.—A small quantity of ether, poured on 
water in a tumbler, if set afire by a match, will burn wdth a 
brilliant flame. It is difficult to blow out the flame, but a 
piece of paper placed over the tumbler will cut off the supply 
of oxygen, and extinguish the flame instantaneously. This 
experiment shows how to deal with fire, especially in cases of 
an accident. Running into the air, striking and blowing the 
flame, when a person’s clothes have caught fire, will but in¬ 
crease the intensity of the flame. Cutting off the supply of 
air, by throwing a shawl, a piece of carpet or clothing, over 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


15 


the person enveloped in flame, will extinguish it, and may be 
the means of saving a life in case of an accident. Even throw¬ 
ing the person on the floor or the ground, and turning around, 
may extinguish the flame. Dr. Rush wrote a hundred years 
ago that no teacher or parent should neglect to show children 
what to do in case of an accident by fire. The experiment 
just explained will impress this more effectually, if it is made 
in the presence of children, than a half hour’s lecture on the 
subject, without the illustration. 

Lamp Explosions.—How lamp explosions are caused can 
be shown by dropping a few drops of ether into a flask and 
holding it over a lamp or near a fire. In a few moments the 
ether is converted into gas, which fills the bottle. When the 
bottle is held with the mouth downward to a lighted match, 
the gas ignites with a slight explosion. This can be repeated 
a number of times by simply turning the bottle and relighting 
the gas every time it is inverted. The gas which forms over 
the oil of a lamp partly full, and standing in a warm place, 
sometimes forces itself out suddenly, when the wick is charred 
at the top of the tube, and causes a dangerous explosion. 
That lamps should be kept well filled, the wick not allowed to 
char nor choke the tube, the lamp not filled by a light, and 
similar lessons, can be taught in connection with this experi¬ 
ment. 

Fire under Water.—Put a small piece of phosphorus in a 
conically shaped glass filled with water, and throw a few crys¬ 
tals of chlorate of potash in. Through a tube, or a glass fun¬ 
nel, pour a little sulphuric acid on the phosphorus. The fire 
is plainly seen in the dark. Be careful in handling the phos¬ 
phorus. It inflames very readily. Always keep it under wa¬ 
ter. The tube through which the acid is poured must reach 
to the phosphorus. This experiment shows that the oxygen 
of water, as well as that of the air, feeds the flame. 

A Coal Oil Lamp can be Lit with a Snowball, if a small 
piece of metallic potassium be placed in the wick, and then 
touched with a snowball or a piece of ice. 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


16 


A Beautiful Red Flame, such as is seen in illuminations, 
may be made by taking half a teaspoonful of chloride of stron- 
tian, and placing it in an iron spoon filled with alcohol. When 
this mixture is heated over a lamp and lit, it will burn with a 
beautiful red flame. 

A Green Flame is produced in the same way by using ni¬ 
trate of copper, instead of the strontian. 

Green Fiame —Take an old fashioned copper cent, or any 
piece of copper, and place it in strong vinegar a few days. 
Verdigris will be formed on the surface. Scrape it off and 
burn it in an iron spoon in alcohol. It will produce a beauti¬ 
ful green flame. 

Spontaneous Combustion is shown by placing a few crys¬ 
tals of chlorate of potash in a conically shaped wine glass, or 
any deep narrow glass tube, and pouring a few drops of sul¬ 
phuric acid on them. A crackling noise will be observed in 
the glass as soon as the acid reaches the chlorate of potash. 
A greenish yellow gas will be observed in the glass. This is 
chlorine. The odor of chlorine will soon fill the room. Take 
a slip of paper and saturate it with turpentine. Place the pa¬ 
per on a stick, and let it hang in the glass till it reaches the 
chlorine. An explosion will take place, the turpentine will 
burn brilliantly and send up a dense column of smoke. This 
is an illustration of spontaneous combustion, such as some¬ 
times takes place where greasy substances are thrown on a 
heap in a warm place, or even where hay or grain is hauled 
into a barn, when not fully dry. It also explains the hazi¬ 
ness of Indian summer, which is caused by the decaying vege¬ 
table matter which has accumulated on the ground, decompos¬ 
ing and undergoing a slow combustion during the warm days of 
fall, from which gases are set free, which in their decomposi¬ 
tion cause the smokiness noticed in the air. 

Volcanoes.—How volcanoes are produced can be shown by 
mixing sugar and chlorate of potash, twice the quantity of 
chlorate as of sugar. Drop a few drops of sulphuric acid on 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


17 


the mixture. It immediately inflames, burning beautifully, 
with a yellow and violet flame. The yellow flame is caused by 
the carbon of the sugar, the violet by the potassium in the 
chlorate of potash. Dense volumes of smoke ascend. Pure 
charcoal is left behind. By heaping some soft mud around 
the mixture, and leaving a small opening at the top for a cra¬ 
ter, the analogy will become still better. This is chemical ac¬ 
tion. Volcanoes are the result of chemical action in the inte¬ 
rior of the earth. The theory formerly held that the interior 
of the earth is a liquid mass, has been proved by our modern 
and best geologists to be unfounded. Whether there be pock¬ 
ets of fire beneath the surface, or whether the fire is caused by 
chemical action, the explanation of volcanoes is the same. 
They are always found near the coast, or on islands, or at 
points where the water finds its way below the surface of the 
earth. Heat is produced by chemical action, the water intro¬ 
duced into the earth is converted into steam, and when the 
pressure of the steam becomes too great an eruption takes 
place. In some cases these eruptions are constant, because 
the supply of water is large and constant. The fire, like all 
fires, is the result of chemical action. 


ILLUSTRATING THE PRINCIPLES OF HEAT. 

Expansion by Heat.—Take any ordinary metallic ring, and 
get or make a ball that will just fit it, but not go through it. 
A large marble will do. Heat the ring. The ball will now 
pass through the ring. This illustrates the expansibility of all 
substances when heated, except water, at a certain temperature. 
Why do substances expand when heated ? Why do the parti¬ 
cles of water become enlarged when heated ? Why does not 
water also expand when heated from 32 to 39 0 Fahrenheit, but 
contract ? What proof of the wisdom of the Creator is here 
displayed! 

Transmission of Heat.—Take an iron rod, and fasten it 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 




18 


horizontally, so that at one end a lamp can be placed under it. 
Attach all along the rod small pieces of candle, or any light 
a a a a a substances, by melting them fast against 

' -m the rod. Notice how these substances 
drop off, one by one, as the lamp is lit 
underneath the rod and begins to heat 
it, those nearest the lamp dropping first. This illustrates con¬ 
duction of heat. Why does the heat pass along the rod? 


3 


Conduction of Heat. Boiling Water.—Few persons have 
ever seen and watched the process of water boiling. It is very 
interesting and instructive, and can only be studied satisfact¬ 
orily when water is boiled in a clear glass vessel, over an alcohol 
lamp, which gives no smoke. To do this take any ordinary 
thin glass vessel, with a string tied around it. Place 
it in a kettle of water, and then heat the ■water—the 
glass will not break, because it becomes gradually 
heated. Why would it break when rapidly heated? 

After the water is hot lift out your glass vessel nearly 
full of water. By means of the string attached to it, 
hold the vessel over an alcohol lamp or a shovel full of 
red hot coals. In a short time the water begins to boil 
very briskly. Boiling can be started, when near the point, by 
dropping in a few grains of sand or some sawdust. This ex¬ 
periment illustrates ebullition very satisfactorily. Notice how 
the drops start at the bottom of the vessel, and rise rapidly to 
the surface. Why do they rise? What is boiling? Why can 
not water be heated above 212 degrees in an open vessel? 

The first part of this experiment can also be turned to good 
account practically in every household. Glass vessels when 
heated unequally frequently crack. Tumblers are often cracked 
when hot lemonade is poured into them. Jars into which hot 
preserves are poured are apt to crack. Why ? How can these 
accidents be avoided ? Plunge the jars and tumblers into warm 
water first, or pour the hot substance gradually into them. 
Glass stoppers can be removed from bottles by dipping a rag 
into hot w r ater, and wrapping it around the neck of the bottle. 




EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


19 


Water may be made to Boil with a Snowball if a bottle 
is half filled with boiling water, and then tightly corked. If the 
bottle is now held with its mouth immersed in water, and a 
snowball applied to the vacuum on the bottle, boiling begins 
when the snow is brought in contact with the bottle, and ceases 
when the snow is removed. 

The most satisfactory method of making this experiment is 
to take a round bottomed French glass flask, fill it partly with 
lukewarm water, and hold it by means of a string attached, 
over an alcohol lamp till the water boils very briskly. Have a 
cork to fit the bottle tightly, and the moment the bottle is re¬ 
moved from the flame, cork it tightly. Boiling will cease. 
Then proceed as directed above. The reason that boiling 
commences when the snowball or piece of ice is applied to the 
bottle, over the vacuum, is because the pressure is removed 
from the surface. By applying the snowball the rarified air in 
the bulk of the bottle is condensed and the pressure on the sur¬ 
face of the water diminished, so that boiling, which is simply 
a rising of the warmer particles to the surface, takes place at a 
very low temperature, say 100 degrees instead of 212, as is the 
case when there is the ordinary pressure of the air. Hence 
eggs and other substances can not be boiled on a mountain, 
where the pressure of the air is so much less than at the level 
of the ocean, the water not being sufficiently heated to boil 
the eggs before it evaporates. Touch the bottle to which the 
snowball has been applied. The hand can be held on it though 
the water inside boils. As soon as the snowball is removed 
the boiling stops, because the air in the bottle now expands 
again and produces a pressure on the surface. 

To Freeze a Tin Cup to the Floor in a Hot Room.— 

Throw a handful of salt into a tin cup half filled with snow or 
fine pieces of ice. Place the tin cup on a board on which water 
has been poured. Stir the mixture with a stick. It will soon 
freeze so firmly to the board that it can only be torn of with 
difficulty. This can be done in a hot room and under the 
stove. 


20 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


This experiment explains how icecream is made ; why salt¬ 
ing the street car tracks will make the ice melt ; why it is colder 
when snow melts than when it falls. The heat from the sur¬ 
rounding air is absorbed very rapidly in order to cause the 
chemical action which melts the snow. As the heat is ab¬ 
stracted from the air, the temperature is greatly reduced. The 
degree of cold is so intense that Fahrenheit thought it the 
greatest cold that could possibly be obtained, and hence made 
this temperature the zero of his thermometer. This is a very 
interesting experiment. Try it. Freeze the cup fast to the 
floor or table in the hottest room, and then explain the 
principle. 


AIR. 

ELASTICITY OF THE AIR. 

Tumbler Experiment.—Immerse an inverted tumbler per¬ 
pendicularly in water, only a very little of the water will enter 
the tumbler, and of course the air in the tumbler is compressed. 
If the vessel is pressed down still farther a little more water 
enters it, but it will never be entirely filled with water, because 
it contains air. A cork previously placed in the tumbler will 
show the position of the water-level inside. Air maintains its 
place like every other body, and presses up on bodies. Its 
pressure is distinctly felt, and if you withdraw the hand which 
presses the tumbler down, the tumbler will instantly rise. The 
air in the glass was compressed and tended to expand again, 
because air, like other bodies, is elastic. 

Funnel Experiment.—If a glass funnel be immersed in¬ 
stead of a tumbler, and if inverted with the mouth downward, 
the upper end being closed with the thumb, the air in the fun¬ 
nel is compressed. As the thumb is removed, however, water 
rushes into the funnel, forcing out some of the air. 

Cement a funnel into the neck of a bottle and pour water 
into it. Only a small quantity of water will enter, unless the 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


21 


funnel is placed in the bottle loosely, so that there is a passage 
for the air. For, as the water is poured into the funnel, it 
forces the air in the tube of the funnel into the bottle. The 
air in the bottle being thus greatly compressed, its elastic force 
resists the downward pressure of the water. 

“ Hero’s Fountain.”—Take a cork which fits the mouth of 
a bottle, and perforate it with a round file. The hole should 
be made so as to admit with difficulty a glass tube, which is 
now pushed through the cork. The tube should have a very 
fine opening above. This being done, fill the bottle 
i'ffl V’ a ^ out with water and close it with the cork. 

’ >1 h l Then drive the glass tube farther down until it nearly 
reaches the bottom of the bottle. The bottle now 
pIN contains air in its upper part, and water in its lower. 

Uu On blowing more air into the tube the air will ascend 

through the water and collect in the space above. In 
so doing, the air over the water is compressed and in 
trying to expand, it forces the water upward through the tube. 

PRESSURE OF THE AIR. 

How Air Supports Water.—A tumbler filled with water 
to the brim, with a piece of paper placed over it, is inverted. 
The hand on the paper, after pressing the latter firmly against 
the tumbler, is removed, but the water does not flow out. 
How can this be accounted for? The air presses upward « 
against the paper. It is this upward pressure of the air which 
supports the water in the tumbler. The paper prevents the 
air from forcing its way into the water, by rushing up along a 
part of the inner side of the tumbler, leaving the water to fall 
down on the opposite part. ,If the tumbler could be held steady 
the paper would not be required. 

Immerse a Tumbler, Horizontally, into a bowl of water, 
and press it down gradually. It will fill with water and after¬ 
ward be entirely below the surface of the liquid. Now turn it 
to a vertical position, and without, however, raising its mouth 
above the surface, lift it as high as possible. The whole turn- 


22 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


bier is still filled with water, and will remain filled. The tum¬ 
bler contains no air, while the air over the remaining water 
presses downward upon the water. This pressure of air sup¬ 
ports the column of water in the tumbler. 

Water in a Tube.—Take a narrow glass tube, open at both 
ends, and immerse it perpendicularly in water. The tube will 
partly fill with water; if taken out, the water will flow through 
the tube and fall because attracted to the earth. Place the 
tube again in the water, but so that no air remains in it, and 
take it out again, keeping the upper opening closed with the 
thumb. No water will flow from the tube, because air presses 
against the lower opening and thus supports the column of 
water in the tube. On removing the thumb the water will flow 
out, because the air presses as strongly above as below, and the 
force of gravity causes it to fall. 


Expansion of Air.—Partially fill a bladder with air, and 
after tying its mouth place it near a fire; the air within the 
bladder expands and completely fills it. 

Invert a wine glass in a basin; gently pour hot water into it; 
bubbles of air escape from the wine glass, in consequence of 
the expansion of air by the heat. 

Throw a piece of burning paper into a wine glass, and while 
the paper is still burning, forcibly close the mouth of the glass 
with the hand; after a few seconds the glass will be found to 
stick to the hand with considerable force. Here 
the heat expels nearly the whole of the air in the 
glass, by causing it to expand. After the air in 
the glass cools it contracts, and then the pressure 
of the external air upon the outside of the glass 
becomes greater than the pressure of the rarified 
air within the glass. 

The Pneumatic Paradox.—Bore a hole with 
a tube through an ordinary business card. The tube should 
be even with the card at the end which has been passed 
through, and fit the hole tightly. Now take another card, 





EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


23 


stick a pin through it, and lay it on the first card, with the pin 
in the tube. The harder you blow into the tube the more 
difficult it will be to blow the card with the pin in off. Hold 
it downward and blow. It can not be blown away, but the 
moment the blowing ceases it drops off to the floor. This is 
a very interesting experiment, and difficult to explain. Who 
will explain it ? 


LIGHT. 

PRISMS.—THE SEVEN COLORS. 

Decomposing a Kay of Light.—Instead of buying a 
prism, use a lamp drop, which can be found in almost every 
house, where the old fashioned lamps, with drops, triangular 
prismatic pieces of glass suspended around the lamp, were 
formerly in use. Hold the prism in the sun’s rays at a win¬ 
dow, and the spectrum will be seen on the opposite wall. The 
seven colors of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, 
indigo, violet—will show very beautifully. 

A good prism can be made thus: Procure two strips of com¬ 
mon glass, having the shape of a rectangle, each of the same 
size, about 5 inches long by 1^ inches wide. One of the long 
edges of each is heated over an alcohol flame; both edges are 
then cemented together with sealing wax, allowing a distance 
of 1 ]/z inches between the two remaining edges. The ends of 
the vessel thus formed are closed by triangular pieces of thin 
board, measuring 1%. inches on each side, and which are like¬ 
wise cemented to the glass. Water is then put in, and when 
used the prism is held so as to have the long cemented edge 
below. 

Prisms can be made also of ice. 

DECOMPOSITION OF LIGHT. 

The Color Top.—Get a large top, the largest you can find, 
with a flat disk. Paste three colored strips, red, yellow and 



24 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


blue, or seven strips, each one painted with one of the seven 
colors, on the side of the disk which is uppermost when re¬ 
volving. The strips must be cut triangular in shape, and must 
cover the entire disk. Spin the top rapidly, the seven colors 
will combine and form white. Owing to the imperfections of 
the colors and the making of the top, the combined colors will 
not be a perfect white, rather an ashen grey. 

Combination of Colors. —Take the aniline colors, which 
can be had at any drugstore. Combine red and yellow, or¬ 
ange will be produced. Take yellow and blue, green will be 
formed. Red and blue will form violet or indigo, All shades 
and varieties of colors can be produced in this way. If the 
three, red, yellow and blue, could be perfectly combined, 
which is difficult to be done, owing to the different strengths 
of the colors, so that no rule can be given for the proportions, 
white would be the result. 

To Form the Image of a Candle by the Transmission of 
its Light through a Hole. —Pierce a thick sheet of writing 
paper with a stout darning needle; hold the paper between a 
lighted candle and the wall of the room. An inverted image 
of the candle will be thrown upon the wall. Move the paper 
forward or backward, until you have attained that position 
which gives the most distinct image; yon have then got the 
focus. 

To Produce an Artificial Rainbow. —When the sun is 

shining near the horizon, get a person to project water from a 
wet broom; place yourself between the sun and the scattered 
water, having your face toward the shower of drops, and you 
will observe all the colored tints of the rainbow. Here the 
little drops of water obviously decompose the light. 

Experiments on Diffraction of Light. —Hold a fine nee¬ 
dle close to one eye, the other being shut, and look fixedly at 
it, against any light object as a background; you will see 
several needles. 

Make a straight cut in apiece of card board; look through 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


2 5 


the narrow opening at a candle; on each side of the real can¬ 
dle you will see other candles marked. with the colors of the 
rainbow. 

Lenses. —Double convex lenses, for magnifying and burn¬ 
ing purposes, can be made by taking two watch crystals and 
cementing their edges together. Leave an opening at one 
place, so that water can be introduced to fill the empty space 
between the crystals. After this has been done cement 
over this opening, so that none of the water can flow out. 
This lens serves a very good purpose. In an emergency a 
magnifying lens can be made of a drop of water, held between 
two blades of grass, or a split piece of wood. This is some¬ 
times done by botanists, when they wish to examine flowers 
in the absence of a microscope. Why does a lens magnify ? 
Why do objects appear nearer and larger when seen through a 
telescope ? Very few persons can give a satisfactory answer 
to this question. 

Reflection of Light. —Stand before an ordinary looking 
glass, and notice the reflection of light. Notice particularly 
also that the image is reversed. A person’s right side is the 
left one of the image. Explain why this is so. 

Refraction of Light. —Place a coin in an empty wash basin 
and place the basin so that the coin is just out of sight. Pour 
water into the basin without disturbing the coin. As the basin 
is filled gradually, the coin will be seen. The rays of light in 
passing from the water to the air are bent, refracted, and hence 
the coin has become visible. This simple experiment illus¬ 
trates the entire subject of refraction of light, necessary to be 
understood and studied by the fisherman, as well as the most 
profound astronomer. The heavenly bodies are never seen in 
their true position, except when at the zenith, since the rays 
of light are constantly refracted in passing from rarer to denser 
strata of air. No one in the latitude of the United States has 
ever seen the sun or the moon in its true position. The sun 
and moon are always seen before they rise, when they are yet 


26 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


below the horizon, just as the coin in the basin is below a 
straight line drawn from the eye to the rim of the basin. 

Experiment with Mirror on Pulse.—Get a small bit of 
looking-glass, about an inch square, and some wax. Warm the 
wax in the hand till it is soft, and then make three small pel¬ 
lets about the size of a pea. Put one of these on the back of 
the little mirror, near the edge, and half way between two cor¬ 
ners. Place one at each of the opposite corners, so that the 
mirror will have three legs or supports placed in a triangle. 
Bring a small beam of sunlight into a dark room. Any beam 
of sunlight in a dark room will answer. 

Turn back your coat sleeve, and while standing near the 
beam of light place the little mirror on the wrist, with one of 
the wax legs resting on the pulse. Then bring the arm into 
the beam, so that the light will fall on the mirror. Hold the 
arm steady, and watch the spot of reflected light thrown upon 
the wall. See ! It moves backward and forward with a curi¬ 
ous, jerking motion. It is like the ticking of a clock, or like 
the beating of one’s pulse. It is the motion of your pulse. 
The mirror moves with the pulse, and the beam of reflection 
thrown on the wall moves with it, and though this movement 
is very slight the reflection on the wall moves over a space of 
several inches, and we can see it plainly. When a mirror is 
moved to the right or left the beam of light reflected from it 
moves also to the right or left, and each time through twice as 
great an angle as the mirror. 

This experiment is a wonderfully interesting one, and may 
be tried with a number of boys or girls, and each may see the 
peculiar beating of his or her pulse pictured on the wall in the 
most singular and startling manner. If any of the persons 
whose pulse-beats are thus exhibited get excited, laugh at the 
exhibition, or are in any way disturbed, the change in the 
movement of their pulse will be quickly repeated on the wall, 
where a hundred people can see it. 

Experiments on Reflection.—Let a beam of light fall up¬ 
on a sheet of drawing paper in a darkened room; it will be 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


27 


scattered and illuminate the room. Let it fall upon a mirror; 
nearly all of it will be reflected in a definite direction and in¬ 
tensely illuminate only a part of the room. 

Place side by side upon a board a piece of black cloth (not 
glossy), a piece of drawing paper, and a piece of looking-glass. 
Allow a beam of sunlight to fall upon the cloth, and notice the 
absorption. Let it fall upon the paper, and notice the dif¬ 
fusion of the light and its effects. Move the board so that the 
cloth, paper and glass shall pass through the beam in quick 
succession, and notice the effects. 

In the darkened room place a tumbler of water upon a table; 
with a hand mirror reflect the sunbeam down into the water; 
the tumbler will be visible. Stir a teaspoonful of milk into 
the water, and again reflect the sunbeam into the liquid; the 
whole room will be illuminated by the diffused light, the tum¬ 
bler of milky water acting like a luminous body. 


NATURAL PHENOMENA. 

How to Ascertain the Distance of a Thunder Cloud.— 

Thunder storms are not as far away as supposed. A cloud 
apparently far away is frequently only a few miles distant. 
Thunder is seldom heard more than ten miles. Any one can 
easily test this. Note how many seconds there are from the 
moment the flash of lightning is seen till the report of the 
thunder is heard. Divide the number of seconds by five. 
This gives the number of miles the cloud is distant. If you 
have no watch with a second hand, put your finger on your 
wrist and count the number of pulsations. This will give 
you the seconds sufficiently near for all practical purposes. 

To ascertain how soon it will commence to rain, find the 
distance of the cloud in the way just described, and then, aft¬ 
er waiting a number of minutes, do the same thing again. 
This will show how much nearer the storm is now, or how fast 
it has approached in so many minutes, and knowing how many 



28 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


miles it is distant, you can ascertain in how many minutes rain 
will begin to fall. 

Thus: Five minutes ago twenty seconds elapsed between 
the flash and the report, the cloud was four miles away. Now 
there are only fifteen. The storm is now three miles distant. 
It has approached one mile in five minutes. It is still three 
miles distant. In fifteen minutes rain will commence to fall. 
If you are. away from home one mile, you can reach home 
yet, by the time the storm arrives. 

To Make the Ignis Fatuus, or Will-o’-the-Wisp.— 

Add gradually one ounce, by measure, of sulphuric acid to 
four or six ounces of water, in an earthenware basin. Throw 
in an ounce of granulated zinc, and a small bit of phospho¬ 
rus, say as large as a pea. Phosphureted hydrogen will be 
produced, which takes fire the moment it reaches the air. In 
a short time the whole surface will become luminous, and con¬ 
tinue so as long as gas is generated. In the night it will 
produce a beautiful sight. The gas is generated at the bot¬ 
tom of stagnant shallow ponds, in marshes and boggy places; 
it is frequently seen hovering over the surface of burial 
grounds. It is very light. The least disturbance of the air 
causes it to move; hence persons running away from it, and 
causing a current of air in that direction, will be followed by 
these lights, and are often greatly frightened. 

Another Way to Make the Same Experiment. —Place a 

piece of unslacked lime as large as a walnut (it can be made 
fine by hammering) into a retort flask; pour warm water over 
it so as to fill two-thirds of the flask, and throw in a piece of 
phosphorus about the size of a pea. Now heat the retort, 
keeping the mouth of the tube under water in a basin. In a 
short time bubbles will commence to rise, which will burn the 
moment they reach the air, and send up beautiful rings of 
white smoke as high as the ceiling. The gas is phosphureted 
hydrogen. If the end of the glass tube which passes under 
water be bent upward the fiery bubbles and rings of smoke 
will come out still more beautiful. Be careful not to have 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


2 9 


your face over the retort after the alcohol lamp is applied, as 
in case of the retort bursting the face would be injured. The 
author once almost lost his eyesight in this way. 

Another Way. —If half a teaspoonful of phosphuret of 
calcium be thrown into a conically shaped glass filled with wa¬ 
ter, the fiery bubbles will appear at the surface. 

These experiments should be employed to explain to chil¬ 
dren how the lights, which are sometimes seen in graveyards 
and marshy localities, are caused. 

Why the Heavenly Bodies Appear Enlarged. —The sun 

and the moon, when rising or setting, appear of extraordinary 
size. This phenomenon is due neither to the reflection 
or refraction of the atmosphere, as is sometimes supposed. 
It is simply a mental delusion, as is shown by experi¬ 
ment. Take a long tube, a tin spout or a stove pipe will do. 
Look through it at the heavenly bodies, when they are near the 
horizon. They will seem no larger than when overhead. This 
proves that the apparently enlarged size of these bodies when ris¬ 
ing or setting, is due to mental hallucination, produced by the 
intervening objects, such as trees, buildings, etc., of which we 
know the distance. We reason, unconsciously, that inasmuch as 
the heavenly bodies are so much farther off, they must be very 
much larger. The tube or pipe through which the sun and 
moon are viewed, shuts off the intervening objects, and conse¬ 
quently there is no mental deception, just as is the case when 
the heavenly bodies are seen overhead. 

Boiler Explosions —Fix a candle bomb in the flame of a 
light. After the water boils and is converted into steam, the 
pressure against the inside will cause an explosion. Candle 
bombs cost fifty cents per dozen. They are small glass globes 
partly filled with colored water. Explosions of air tight ves¬ 
sels in which water is heated to steam occur in the same way 
when the pressure becomes too great. 

How the Earth’s Crust was Broken and Mountains 
were Formed. —Break the end of a Rupert’s drop, and it will 


3 ° 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


fly into a thousand pieces. If the drop is held in a small thin 
glass bottle filled with water, and then broken, the shock will 
break the bottle* This illustrates the internal pressure of the 
earth, the breaking of the crust, and the eruption of matter 
from the earths interior. Rupert’s drops cost about fifty cents 
per dozen. They are drops of molten glass which were cooled 
rapidly on the outside, while internally they cooled gradually; 
and consequently the inside mass exerts a strong pressure on 
the surface shell. When slightly scratched or a start is given 
by breaking the end of the drop, the entire drop flies to 
pieces. 

The Formation of Mountain Chains, Illustrated by 
Means of Bologna Flasks.—These flasks are very brittle on 
the inside, and soft glass on the outside. Consequently, they 
can be pounded or struck on a board and do not break, but 
when a nail, a screw, or anything with a sharp edge is let 
fall into them, they break. They can be used to illustrate the 
same principles as Rupert’s drops, and also illustrate the frac¬ 
ture of the earth’s crust through which the molten matter has 
been poured. Bologna flasks cost $1.00 per dozen. 

Intermittent Springs. The Tantalus Cup.—Drill a hole 

through the bottom of a tea cup or a wooden cup. Fit the 
long end of a siphon into this hole, so that the short end may 
nearly touch the bottom of the cup, and the knee of the siphon 
is not above the rim of the cup. This is a Tantalus cup. 
When filled with water to cover the siphon, the water will flow 
out at the bottom till the cup is empty. This illustrates inter¬ 
mittent springs. 

To Make Blue Roses, Blue Lilies, Snowballs, etc.— 

Such a thing as a blue rose, lily, snowball, or any other of 
the nonxanthic, or yellow flowers is an impossibility in the 
vegetable kingdom. Nature will never produce it. It can 
however, be made artificially and the experiment is very beau¬ 
tiful. Cover the ground around a white rose, lily or snowball 
stalk with blue clay, or with ground made blue with a solution 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


3 1 


of blue coloring matter, the stalk will absorb this coloring 
matter, and produce blue flowers. This experiment also illus¬ 
trates the principle of endosmose. 

Artificial Lightning. —Provide a tin tube that is larger at 
one end than it is at the other, and in which there are several 
holes. Fill this tube with powdered resin, and when it is shook 
over the flame of a torch, the reflection will produce the exact 
appearance of lightning. 

Winds. Currents of Air. —Hold a lighted candle at top 
and bottom of the door of a heated room. At the bottom the 
flame will be blown toward the room, at top toward outside. 
The warm air being lighter rises to the top and presses out¬ 
ward, while the cold air forces inward below, being heavier. 
Currents of air and winds press southward, near the surface of 
the earth, or toward a warmer place, while the warmer air 
rising is forced in the opposite direction. 

The Mimic Vesuvius. —This experiment is a demonstra¬ 
tion of the heat and light that are evolved during chemical 
combination. Put a piece of phosphorus, the size of a cherry, 
into a Florence-oil flask, holding the flask slantingly, that the 
phosphorus may not take fire and break the glass. Pour upon 
it a gill and a half of water, and place the whole over an alco¬ 
hol lamp; light the wick, which should be about half an inch 
from the flask; and as soon as the water is boiling hot, streams 
of fire resembling sky-rockets, will burst at intervals from the 
water. Some particles will also adhere to the sides of the glass, 
immediately display brilliant rays, and thus continue until the 
water begins to simmer, when a beautiful imitation of the aurora 
borealis will commence, and gradually ascend until this collects 
into a pointed cone at the mouth of the flask. When this has 
continued for half a minute, blow out the flame of the lamp and 
the apex of fire that was formed at the mouth of the flask will rush 
down forming beautiful illumined clouds of fire, rolling over each 
other for some time, and when these disappear a splendid hemis¬ 
phere of stars will present itself. After waiting a minute or two, 


3 2 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


light the lamp again and nearly the same phenomena will be 
displayed as at the beginning. Let a repetition of lighting 
and blowing out the lamp be made for three or four times, so 
that the number of stars may be increased; and after the third 
or fourth act of blowing out the lamp, the internal surface of 
the flask will be dry. Many of the stars will shoot with great 
splendor from side to side, while others will appear and burst 
at the mouth of the flask. What liquid remains in the flask 
will serve for the same experiment three or four times, without 
adding any water. Great care should be taken during the ex¬ 
periment, and after the operation is over put the flask in a cool 
and secure place. 


THE FORCES OF NATURE. 

GRAVITATION. 

1. Take a common ladder to the top of a high building and 
place it so that it will project a foot or two beyond the apex of 
the roof. Suspend two weights of unequal value, say 2 and 4 
pounds respectively, to the last round of the ladder by means 
of threads passing over the first round and tied to the second 
round. See that the weights hang at exactly the same distance 
from the ladder. Now release the weights by cutting both the 
threads at once with a sharp knife where they pass over the 
first round. The weights will drop to the earth in exactly the 
same time, at least so far as may be observed with the eye. 

2. A ball of light wood will roll up an inclined plane if a 
piece of lead be inserted in one side. A section of elder pith 
with a piece of lead in one end will not lie on its side but will 
fly up and stand on end. The ends should be slightly rounded. 
Blow out the contents of an egg shell by making a small hole 
in each end. When dry pour in some melted lead after having 
put in a little powdered rosin. The lead when solid will be 
held at one end and the egg cannot be made to take any other 
position than on end. If a quantity of sand be put in an egg 
shell it will lie in any position in which it is placed. 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


33 


3. Take two lead pencils and lay them with two ends to¬ 
gether on the table, the other ends diverging about two inches 
and resting on a book about an inch in thickness. Whittle a 
piece of wood into the shape of a double cone, or a figure in 
the shape of two cones placed with their bases together. This 
double cone if placed in the center of the inclined plane made 
by the pencils will roll up the plane instead of down. 

4. Take a coin as a silver dollar and by laying it on a card 
and marking with a pencil, a piece of cardboard can be cut ex¬ 
actly the same size as the coin. Hold the coin between the 
thumb and finger and lay the card on top of it. By suddenly 
releasing the coin it will drop, the card following along with it 
so that both will reach the floor at the same instant. By plac¬ 
ing the coin and card side by side and dropping, the coin will 
reach the floor first. This illustrates exactly the same principle 
as that shown by the “guinea and feather drop” which re¬ 
quires an air pump for its performance. The coin removes the 
air in front of the paper and the resistance being removed, the 
paper drops as in a vacuum. 

Support of the Center of Gravity. —Cut a slit into a cork, 
so that a thin coin or a tin disc can be slipped in. On oppo¬ 
site sides of the cork and at right angles with the coin, stick 
forks or knives of equal size. Cork a bottle and press a needle, 
with the point projecting upward, into this cork. Place the 
first cork, with the forks stuck into it, so that the edge of the 
cork rests on the point of the needle in the other cork. Give 
it a swing. The coin will revolve on the point of the needle, 
and will not fall from its pivot even when very briskly swung. 
The weight of the fork handles bring the center of gravity so 
far below the point of suspension that it is difficult to throw 
it off. 

Center of Gravity below the Point of Support —Take 
a shingle ten inches in length. Bore a hole into it with a gim¬ 
let, near the middle, so that a rod can be tightly fitted in at an 
angle of thirty degrees. Let the rod be about twenty inches 
long, and tie a two or three ounce weight to the end, or run it 
3 


34 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


into an apple or a potato. Place the end of the shingle on 
the edge of the table so that the bulk at the end of the rod may 
swing underneath. The apparatus will swing like a wood- 
sawyer, but will not fall off, on account of the center of gravity 
being supported. 

Center of Gravity Near the Base. —Take a piece of very 
light wood—the dry pith of elder is the best. Shape it like a 
cone. Flatten a shot and fasten it to the bottom of the cone 
with wax. This cone will always erect itself when pushed 
over, as the center of gravity is at its bottom. 

Center of Gravity Outside the Base. —An experiment 

which every boy will be glad to make, is to pick up a dime or 
nickel from the floor, in front of him, while standing with his 
heels against the wall, without moving his feet. If he suc¬ 
ceeds, let him have the dime for a reward. If he can not do 
it, let him explain the reason why. 

These experiments will explain a number of principles, such 
as why a wagon loaded with straw or hay falls over so readily, 
why sleighs upset so easily, why a cat will always fall with its 
feet downward, why ink and mucilage bottles are made wide 
at the bottom, why a tumbler is called a “tumbler,” why a 
person falling into deep water can not be drowned, provided 
he keeps his hands and feet under the water and remains quiet, 
and a hundred of others. Any child six years old can make 
these experiments at home or in school, and learn many in¬ 
structive lessons therefrom. 

To Explain why the Earth is Flattened at the Poles.— 

That the particles of a body, made to revolve rapidly on its 
axis, tend to fly off from the center, can be illustrated as follows: 
Cut two strips of writing paper an inch wide and a foot long. 
Make two loops out of the strips of paper, by pasting the ends 
together and fasten them together at right angles. Get a smooth 
round stick, about 15 inches long, of the size of a lead pencil. 
Make holes at the intersection of the loops large enough to pass 
the stick through. Fasten the loops by a tack to the stick at one 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


35 

end leaving them free to slide on the stick at the other. The loops 
represent the earth, with the stick for its axis. Roll the stick 
between the palms of the hands, giving it a rapid rotary mo¬ 
tion. The equatorial diameter will bulge out and the polar 
diameter slide down. This shows why the earth was flattened 
at the poles, when revolving on its axis in a fluid condition. 

Centrifugal Force.— Take a small tin pail, half full of 
water. Take hold of the handle of the pail and revolve it rap¬ 
idly over the head. The water remains in the pail, as long as 
it is swung, but falls out the moment the motion stops. The 
centrifugal force keeps it as far from the center as it can pos¬ 
sibly get, namely, at the bottom of the pail. If a small pin 
hole were punched through the bottom, a fine stream of water 
would squirt out. This shows why the mud flies off from 
wagon wheels when one drives fast, why, at a curve, the out¬ 
side track of a railway is higher than the inside one, etc. 

Inertia.—Place a book upright on a piece of paper near the 
end of the piece. Pull the paper rapidly, the book falls back¬ 
ward, pull slowly, the book moves with the paper, stop sud¬ 
denly, the book falls forward. By the rapid pulling of the 
paper the bottom is moved before the top, the top is left be¬ 
hind; by the slow motion the top has time to follow the bottom; 
by the sudden stopping, the top of the book continues to move 
on, after the bottom has stopped. 

A hat can be balanced by placing the crown on the mouth 
of a bottle and a bean or a small stone laid on the crown right 
over the mouth of the bottle. If the hat is struck with dex¬ 
terity from the bottle, the bean will fall into the bottle. 

These experiments explain why persons are precipitated 
from a rapidly moving vehicle, if it stops suddenly, why per¬ 
sons receive a jerk when a train stops, why on alighting from 
a moving vehicle, a person should jump in the direction that 
the vehicle moves, why when a vehicle starts suddenly, a per¬ 
son is thrown off behind, etc. 

How to Shoot a Tallow Candle through a Plank. —Load 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


36 

a tallow candle in a gun and shoot at an inch pine plank. It 
will pass through and make a hole like a bullet. 


HEAT AND LIGHT. 

Cold by Evaporation. —Wet a block of wood and place a 
watch crystal upon it. A film of water may be seen under the 
central part of the glass. Half fill the crystal with sulphuric 
ether and rapidly evaporate it by blowing over its surface a 
stream of air from a small bellows. So much heat is rendered 
latent in the evaporation that the watch crystal is firmly frozen 
to the wooden block. 

Concentrating the Sun’s Rays. —Hold a spectacle glass, 
or a larger lens from an opera glass in the sunlight, perpendic¬ 
ular to the sun’s rays. A point may easily be found below the 
lens where it is unusually warm. At this point, called the focus, 
hold the tip of a common friction match or a bit of gun cotton 
that has been blackened with lampblack or soot. The con¬ 
centrated rays of the sun will set fire to the easily combustible 
substance. Gun cotton may be ignited at the focus of a lens 
made of ice. 

Dark Color a Good Conductor of Heat.—Provide two 
small tin cans of the same size and shape. You can get them 
for the asking. In the cover of each, make a hole through 
which you may pass the bulb of a thermometer. Blacken the 
outside of one can with paint or candle soot. Fill both cans 
with hot water from the same vessel and consequently of the 
same temperature. At the end of half an hour, pass the bulB 
of the thermometer through the holes in the covers and ascer¬ 
tain the temperature of the water in each can. It will be found 
that the blackened can has radiated its heat (or cooled) more 
rapidly than the other. 

This experiment shows that dark colored substances pass off 
and admit heat more readily than light ones. Hence light 
clothes are cooler in summer and warmer in winter, than black. 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


37 


Image of a Candle in "Water. —Place a jar of water back 
of a pane of glass placed upright on a table in a dark room. 
Hold a lighted candle at the same distance in front of the 
glass. The jar will be seen by light transmitted through the 
glass. An image of the candle will be formed by light reflected 
by the glass. The image of the candle will be seen in the jar, 
giving the appearance of a candle burning in water. The same 
effect may be produced in the evening by partly raising a win¬ 
dow and holding the jar on the outside and the candle on the 
inside. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH A CANDLE. 

What Can be Shown with a Candle. —“ There is not a 
law,” says Faraday, “under which any part of this universe 
is governed, which does not come into play, and is touched 
upon by the phenomena of a candle.” 

1. The Cup of the Candle. —Around the wick of a burn¬ 
ing candle a cup is formed. The cold air keeps the outside 
higher. The same principle which holds worlds together, 
holds the melted fluid in a horizontal position. Nothing will 
serve for a candle unless it melts. 

2. Capillary Attraction. —Observe how the fluid gets out 
of the cup, up the wick to the fire. Use a glass tube of small 
diameter, and by placing it in colored water, show how the 
water rises inside the tube. A glass tube can be drawn out by 
heating it in a good sized flame. On this principle the sap 
rises from the ground to the top of a tree. A column of salt 
placed in colored water will show the water rise to the top. 
Throw a wet towel over the side of a wash basin, with the one 
end in the water of the basin. Capillary attraction will raise 
the water over the side of the basin, and cause it to flow on the 
floor, acting as a siphon. 

3. How Gas is Formed.—The candle will not burn as 
long as it is a solid, nor a liquid. A gas must be formed be¬ 
fore a flame can be produced. Blow out the light, you will 
observe the gas or vapor rise. You can smell this vapor. It 


3» 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


is nothing else than the tallow of the candle converted into a gas. 
Hold a lighted match near the vapor, and observe a train of 
fire rushing through the air to the candle. 

3 . The Shape of the Flame.—It is a bright cone, brighter 
at the top than toward the bottom. The darker flame is due 
to the ignition not being so perfect at some parts. The cold 
air cools off the exterior part of the flame, where it comes in 
contact with it. As it is introduced into the flame at the bot¬ 
tom of the cone it also cools it off below, and hence the flame 
is darker at the bottom. This cool air also fills the inside of 
the cone. Hold a piece of writing paper across the flame about 
the middle. It will burn a black circle while the inside re¬ 
mains uncharred. 

4 . Other Experiments with the Flame.—Place a bent 
tube in the gaseous part of the flame. The gas can be lit at 
the end of the tube. Place a light in a closed jar. The flame 
will soon expire for want of oxygen. Place a candle on the ta¬ 
ble in a lamp chimney, held tightly on the table. The light 
will go out for want of fresh air. Notice when air is imper¬ 
fectly supplied, how the candle smokes. Why ? Because there 
is not enough heat to consume all the carbon. Hold a cold 
spoon over the flame, and observe the drops of water. Where 
do these drops come from ? A pint of oil, when burnt, produces 
a pint of water. Why? How? 

5 . The Hydrostatic Bellows can be illustrated by taking 
a hog’s bladder, and attaching a tube to the neck, so that 
water can be poured into the bladder through the tube. Lay the 
bladder on a table and lay a board on it. Place weights on the 
board. The board and weights will be lifted, when water is 
poured into the tube. 

HYDROSTATICS AND PNEUMATICS. 

Hydrostatics.—i. Get a tin tube made about 8 inches 
long and 1 % inches in diameter, closed at one end. Make a 
hole in one side about y 2 inch from the closed end. The hole 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


39 


may be about Y% inch in diameter. Fasten the tube by means 
of tacks around the closed end, upright on a thin board 3 or 4 
inches square. Float this boat on water in a tub or other ves¬ 
sel. Stop the hole at the bottom and pour water in the tube. 
Open the hole and the water will flow out, propelling the boat 
across the water. Liquids press in all directions. The pres¬ 
sure being removed from one side by opening the hole, the 
pressure opposite the point causes the boat to move away from 
the flowing jet. 

2. Fit a tube of any kind to an oyster can. Punch holes in 
the top, bottom and sides of the can. Pour water into the 
tube. It will spurt out in all directions, shdwing that water 
presses upward, downward and laterally. 

Pneumatics. —1. The boy’s sucker, or leather weight lifter 
is easily made and illustrates in a forcible manner the down¬ 
ward pressure of the atmosphere. Take a piece of leather two 
or three inches in diameter (round or square) and attach a string 
to the center. Wet the leather thoroughly and press it firmly 
down on a smooth stone, piece of metal or polished wood. The 
air is all excluded from between the leather and smooth sur¬ 
face, and the pressure of the air on the surface of the leather 
will cause it to adhere to the object. Quite a heavy weight 
may be lifted by pulling on the string. 

2. Make a little ball of beeswax about the size of a pea. 
Stick a pin through the center of it so that the ball will stand 
in the middle of the pin. Get a small tube with an opening 
just sufficient to receive the pin loosely. Place the pin in the 
tube and blow through with the mouth, holding the tube in a 
vertical position. The pin and ball will be projected upward 
and held by the current of air, presenting an amusing ap¬ 
pearance. 

The Pump. —The principle of the common suction pump 
may be shown by the squirt gun which any boy can make from 
an elder stem. If a glass tube be used, the rise of the water 
can be exhibited before a class. All that is necessary is to wrap 


40 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


the end of a stick with strips of muslin or candle wicking until 
it fits in the tube as a piston. The action of the valves can be 
shown by a diagram on the blackboard. 

Cupping. —Take a common glass tumbler. Drop into it a 
piece of paper saturated in kerosene, turpentine or alcohol, and 
ignite. After it has nearly all burned, press the tumbler quickly 
upon the naked arm. The skin should be wet to insure suc¬ 
cess. The tumbler adheres to the skin and the flesh is pushed 
up into the tumbler. This is the operation of cupping and 
illustrates, first the rarefaction of air by heat, and second the 
pressure of the atmosphere. 

To Boil Water in a Paper Bag. —Water may be boiled 
in a paper bag over a spirit lamp, if care is taken to have paper 
with a moderate amount of sizing and you are careful not to 
let the flame play too much at one point or where there is a 
crease in it. An egg may be cooked hard by breaking it upon 
a piece of paper on the hot stove. The paper will be only 
slightly burned. The water saturates the paper and as water 
cannot be heated above the boiling point, 212°, this is not suf¬ 
ficient to burn paper. 

Experiments Illustrating Atmospheric Pressure —All 

these experiments are easily made, require no apparatus, ex¬ 
cept such as can be improvised, and cost nothing. Why don’t 
you make them ! 

1. Suck the air from the hollow stem of a key, and quickly 
press the end of the stem against the lip. It will be held there 
by the pressure of the air. 

2. Take an ounce vial. Heat it carefully over a lamp, or 
by immersing in boiling water. Now press the mouth against 
the fleshy part of the hand, where it will be v held by atmos¬ 
pheric pressure. 

3. Place the mouth downward in a saucer of warm water. 
The pressure of the air will force the water into the vial. 

4. Take an empty fruit can, fill it with water, and stretch a 
piece of mosquito netting over the open end. Place a piece of 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


41 


writing paper over the netting, and invert the can. Draw it 
horizontally from the end of the can. The pressure of the air 
will prevent the water from flowing out. 

5. If a nail-hole be punched in the other end of the can, 
and the finger held tightly on the nail-hole, the water will not 
flow out, but when the finger is removed, the downward pres¬ 
sure of the air will force the water through the mosquito net¬ 
ting. 

6. Place one end of a piece of rubber tubing (two pieces of 
rye straw will do, if the one is fitted tightly into the other near 
the joint), into a pail of water, and let the longer end hang 
over the edge of the pail, reaching below the bottom of it. 
Suck some water through the tube. Water will flow out till 
the pail is empty. Why ? 


ELECTRICITY. 

How to Make an Electrical Machine.—A four inch glass 
cylinder costs several dollars. Any carpenter can make a frame 
and mount the cylinder. A prime conductor can be made of 
wood and covered with tin foil. An ordinary bottle will do for 
an insulator, and a common candy jar, covered inside and out¬ 
side with tin foil, answers the purpose of a Leyden jar. We 
have had electrical machines made in this way, which cost $3 
or $4, and were as good as many of the $25 machines. 

An Electrophorus.—Take a box lid about an inch in depth. 
Melt into it rosin sufficient to cover the bottom inside. Take a 
piece of sheet tin, and having driven a nail through the middle, 
take a vial and fasten it to the nail. This can be done by means 
of rosin or wax. This electrophorus answers the requirements 
of an electrical machine. The surface of the rosin in the box 
lid must be smooth and even, and the tin must be straight. 
Excite the rosin surface, when it is warmed, by striking it with 
a clean, dry silk handkerchief. Lay the tin on the rosin, and 
with the fingers of one hand touch the tin on top, while the 



42 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


thumb of the same hand touches the rosin. Now lift up your 
tin lid, by taking hold of the glass handle. Large sized elec¬ 
trical sparks can be taken off the lid by presenting the knuckles. 
A Leyden jar can be charged in this way, the gas lit, etc. 

Insulating Stools can be made by taking a board about two 
feet square, and placing tumblers under it at the four corners, 
or better, boring in holes at the corners, and fitting sarsapa¬ 
rilla bottles into the holes. A person standing on the insulat¬ 
ing stool can be charged with electricity, by gently striking him 
on the back with a muff or a silk coat, so that he can shock 
another person by touching him, or light the gas with his fin¬ 
ger. All this must be done in a hot, dry room. 

Electricity without Apparatus. — i. To produce an elec¬ 
tric spark, it is only necessary to warm a sheet of ordinary 
paper, in front of a good fire or stove or over a lamp. Upon 
going into a dark place and applying the knuckle to the paper, 
a very decided spark will start from the latter, accompanied by 
slight crackling sound. 

2. Take two sheets of paper and interpose a sheet of gold 
leaf between them. After electrifying them as above described, 
it will be only necessary to pass a pencil point in a zigzag man¬ 
ner over the surface to cause the appearance thereon of a lumin¬ 
ous flash of considerable intensity. 

3. Rub a piece of sealing wax, a bar of sulphur, or a lamp 
chimney, with a piece of flannel, and bring them near bits of 
paper or small feathers. They will adhere. 

4. Heat a piece of writing paper, and place k on a table. 
Rub it briskly with a piece of India rubber. It will attract 
light bodies. 

5. In a very warm, dry room, bring the knuckle near elec¬ 
trified sulphur, glass, paper, or a rubber comb. A spark will 
be seen and a crackling heard. Combing the hair or whiskers 
with a gum comb will do the same. 

6. The fur of a cat sparkles when rubbed with the hand in 
cold weather, in a dark room. 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


43 


7. Pith balls suspended on silk threads will be electrified, 
when an electrified bar of sealing wax is brought near. If an 
electrified glass tube is afterward presented, they will be 
attracted to it. When the sealing wax is presented to the one 
ball, and the rod to the other, they will be attracted to these 
objects, and then will be repelled and fly to each other. 

8 . To make artificial lightning place a silver teaspoon be¬ 
tween the gums and upper lip, and a piece of zinc between the 
gums and lower lip. On bringing the two metals into contact 
a sensation will be produced in the mouth, and a flash of light¬ 
ning perceived. 

To Make a Magnetic Needle.—Take an ordinary knitting 
needle, and pass a horseshoe magnet over it, always in the 
same direction, and using the same end of the magnet. A few 
movements of the magnet magnetize the needle, so that, when 
suspended by means of a string, it will point to the north. 
Magnetism has been imparted by induction. Approach the 
north pole of the needle with the north pole of the magnet, it 
will be repelled, while the south pole of the magnet will attract 
it. This is exactly in accordance with the principles of elec¬ 
tricity, for electricity is an invisible, imponderable agent, per¬ 
vading all substances, and its particles are self-repellant. 

The reason that the needle points to the north is because 
there is an electrical current passing around the earth’s equator, 
caused, no doubt, by the chemical action of the sun’s heat. 
The needle always arranges itself at right angles to the current, 
as can be proved by holding a needle in a coil, around which 
an electrical current is passed by means of a battery. So the 
compass needle settles at right angles to the equatorial current 
of magnetism, and hence points north and south. This cur¬ 
rent, however, is not exactly on the earth’s equator, just as iso¬ 
thermals are not on the equator or parallel to it; hence the 
needle does not point exactly north by several degrees, as it 
stands at right angles to the equatorial current. This current 
also rises from the earth’s surface, as we proceed north, hence 
the needle dips. At the equator it is balanced, in our latitude 


44 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


it dips, and at the north pole it stands perpendicular. Every 
schoolroom ought to have a compass needle suspended from 
the ceiling. 

Galvanic Battery. —Two metals and an acid forma battery. 
When a piece of silver and of zinc are placed, one below and 
the other above the tongue, and allowed to touch in front, a 
stinging sensation will be felt. This is due to galvanic action, 
the metals with the saliva of the tongue, which is acid, consti¬ 
tuting a battery. 

Galvanizing. —Take a crystal of blue vitriol, sulphate of 
copper, and dissolve it in soft water. Suspend a nail in the 
solution. The galvanizing process begins at once, and in a 
short time the nail will have received a copper surface. The 
sulphate of copper contains an acid (sulphuric) and the metal 
copper; the other metal, iron, suspended in the solution com¬ 
pletes the battery. 

To Silver a Penny. —Place one drop of mercury on a penny 
and pour a little nitric acid (aqua fortis) on it. The silvering 
process will go on rapidly. In a few moments you have a bright 
silvered penny. 

To Plate Zinc with Copper.—Into a tumbler full of rain 
water place a small quantity of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper). 
Drop a few drops of nitric acid into it, and stir it with a piece 
of glass till the vitriol is dissolved. Introduce a piece of clean 
zinc into the liquid. The zinc will immediately be coppered 
over. This is a fine illustration of silver plating, and also of 
galvanic action. 

Tinning Iron. —All our so called tin vessels, such as kettles, 
buckets, tin cups, etc., are made of sheet iron which has been 
tinned. The tinning is very easily done thus: Clean the 
sheet iron with ashes, and then put it in a vessel containing 
water, into which a small quantity of sulphuric acid has been 
poured. Let it remain in this pickle twenty-four hours, then 
take it out, grease it with a piece of tallow, and put it in a hot 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


45 


oven. Melt some tin and dip the sheet into it while hot. The 
tin will unite so completely with the iron, that when cut, the 
whole presents a silvery mass. This experiment shows the 
union of two metals. The tin foil which is wrapped around 
tobacco, is pure tin, and when melted furnishes tin for experi¬ 
menting. 

PHYSICAL FORCES. 

To Show that Some Molecules are Smaller than Others.— 

Take a bottle three-fourths full of water and pour alcohol in 
till it is filled. Cork the bottle, and shake. The bottle is now 
no longer full. Some of the water molecules have been re¬ 
ceived into the spaces between the alcohol molecules. This 
explains why oil and water do not mix. The spaces between 
the molecules of oil are too small for the molecules of water 
to get between. Explain why the particles of oil do not get 
between the particles of water. 

To Make Fine Tubes.—Heat the middle of a glass tube 
six inches long in an alcohol flame until red hot. When the 
heated part is soft quickly draw the ends asunder. The fine 
glass wire is still a hollow tube, as can be shown by blowing 
through it into water. Bubbles will rise. 

Adhesion Stronger than Cohesion.—Suspend a glass or 
metal plate from one end of a scale beam and balance it accu¬ 
rately in the opposite scale pan. Beneath the plate place 
water, so that the plate may rest upon the liquid surface. Add 
some weights to those in the scale pan. The water beneath 
the plate is raised above its level, until the plate is lifted from 
the water. The under surface of the plate is wet. The water 
molecules have been torn from their companions. This shows 
that adhesion was stronger in this case than cohesion. The 
postage stamps of letters afford a similar illustration. 

Inertia. Communication of Motion —Take two hoops 
and straighten them, so that they make only a slight curve. 
Fasten them to a board about two inches from each other. Get 
half a dozen large glass “marbles” at a toy store. Lay them 


4 6 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


into the opening between the two hoops. Raise one of the 
balls to the highest point, and let it roll down against the others. 
All the balls will remain at rest except the outer one, which 
will be driven up the curve, nearly as far as the first one came 
down. It will return- and strike the other balls, but all will re¬ 
main at rest, except the first one, which will be driven back 
nearly as high as it descended at first. This motion will con¬ 
tinue till the balls come to rest. 

Falling Bodies.—Drop a bullet, from the height of one 
yard, into a pail full of moist clay. Notice to what depth it de¬ 
scends in the clay. Drop it from the height of two yards and 
notice whether it will descend more than twice the former dis¬ 
tance into the clay. In this way the law of falling bodies can 
be established. 

Porosity and Impenetrability.—Get a glass fruit jar with 
a screw top (self-sealer). Have a tinner make a hole in the lid 
and sodder on a piece of tin tubing about two inches in length. 
Draw a piece of rubber tubing over the tin tube so that it fits 
air tight. Fill the jar nearly full of water. Drop in a piece 
of dry wood with weight attached, to sink it. Bubbles of air 
will be seen to rise from the wood. Pieces of brick or chalk 
will pour forth a stream of bubbles also, if immersed in water. 
But the air shower will be greatly increased if the top is 
screwed on the jar and suction is made by applying the mouth 
to the rubber tube. The water being heavier forces its way 
into the pores of the solid body, and the air is forced out. 
When suction is applied a part of the air is removed from the 
jar and the air in the pores rises to fill the place. A good sub¬ 
stitute for an air pump in this case is to take a glass tube (or 
an elder stem) and make a piston to fit it by wrapping the 
end of a stick with moistened strips of muslin and attaching 
the tube to the top of the jar. By withdrawing the piston a 
considerable portion of the air is drawn out of the jar. This 
arrangement is virtually an air pump without valves and of 
course is only useful to exhaust an amount of air equal to that 
removed by the first stroke of the air pump. 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 47 

The above apparatus will be found useful in other experi 
ments. 

Crystallization.—Dissolve a lump of alum in hot water. 
Pour the solution in a shallow dish and stretch strings across, 
through the liquid. In a little time beautiful crystals will form 
on the strings and on the sides of the vessel. The vessel should 
be placed in a still atmosphere and the solution allowed to 
evaporate slowly to secure large crystals. Very large crystals 
may be formed by placing a single perfect one in a fresh so¬ 
lution and adding more of the solution each day. Sugar, com¬ 
mon salt, saltpeter and other substances may be treated in the 
same manner, and crystals of different forms produced. 

Instantaneous Crystallization.—Take one cent’s worth of 
sulphate of soda (Glauber’s Salt) and dissolve it in hot water, 
making a strong solution. Cork it while hot in a bottle. As 
soon as it is cold, remove the cork. Beautiful satin like crys¬ 
tals will shoot out. The experiment can be repeated by im¬ 
mersing the bottle up to its neck in hot water and re-dissolving 
the crystals. 

To Make a Lead Tree.—Put half an ounce of sugar of 
lead into a jar filled with clean rainwater. Add ten drops of 
nitric acid, or a tablespoonful of strong vinegar. Take a small 
piece of zinc, twist about it some fine copper wire, and let the 
end of the wire hang down to near the bottom of the jar. 
Fasten the whole into a cork, or a piece of wood, so that it 
may be suspended in the middle of the jar, but not touch the 
glass anywhere. A beautiful lead tree will be formed. This 
is an illustration of chemical affinity. 

To Make Alum Crystallized Ornaments.—Make a hot 
solution of alum in water. That is, put as much alum in as 
the water will hold in solution. Then suspend in it a sprig, 
a mere ornament, or some cotton. It must not touch the ves¬ 
sel. Set it aside for twelve hours and you will have a beauti¬ 
ful ornament. 

Simple Little Experiments.—i. Dip your finger into 
water, withdraw it. A drop of water adheres. This illustrates 


4 8 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


adhesion. 2. Fill a vial three-quarters full of water. Add 
alcohol carefully until full. Shake the mixture and the vial 
will be full no longer. This proves that the water has been 
received into the space between the alcohol molecules. 3. Heat 
some water in a bottle, and notice the bubbles which arise and 
attach themselves to the sides. This is the air contained in 
water. 4. Place an egg in a vessel of fresh water. It will 
sink. Place it in salt water. It floats. Mix the two, and 
place the egg therein. It will float about the middle of the 
vessel. This illustrates specific gravity. Why do persons test 
lye, when boiling soap, with an egg ? 


PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE, ETC. 


To Show what the Composition of Bones Is.—Place a 


bone in a strong solution of muriatic acid, for a day or two. 
When taken out it is soft, so pliable that it can be bent, wound 
around your arm. The acid has dissolved the lime of the bone. 
Place another bone in the fire. The fleshy tissue, animal mat¬ 
ter, will burn out and only the calcareous matter or lime will 
remain. The bone will be so brittle that it can be broken into 
fine pieces. This proves that bones are composed of lime and 
nitrogenous substances. In youth the latter prevail, and our 
bones are soft, so that children’s bones are seldom broken when 
they fall, but in old age the earthy matter increases and the 
bones become brittle, are easily broken, and not soon healed, 
when an accident occurs. 




The Dead Point in the Eye.—Shut your right eye, and 
with the left eye look at the dot on the right hand. Hold the 
paper close to the eyes. You will see the two dots. Move the 
paper slowly away from the eye. You will at the distance of 
about six inches see only one dot. Now move the paper far¬ 
ther off, and the two dots will be seen again. This experi- 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 49 

ttient is both physiological and philosophical. Who can ex¬ 
plain it? 

Illusion of the Eye.—Look at the letter S and the figure 
8 . The upper part seems to be almost of equal size with the 
lower. Thus: SSSSS 88888. Now look at the same letters 
inverted, and notice the optical illusion. SSSSS 88888- 

A Temperance Lecture.—Pour alcohol on the white of an 
egg. The white of the egg, which is albumen, will in a few 
minutes coagulate, and become hard, so that it may be lifted 
with a stick. This is one of the most convincing proofs that 
alcoholic drinks will harden the albuminous parts of food in 
the stomach, thus causing a gnawing sensation, which by 
drinkers is mistaken for sharpening of appetite. The brain is 
also hardened by the use of- alcohol. 

Impure Air.—Fill a candy jar with water, so that all the 
air is expelled, and hold it with the mouth inverted in water. 
Exhale through a tube the air from the lungs, without inhaling 
through the nose. When the jar is filled, place your hand or a 
piece of heavy paper over the mouth, and turn the jar upright. 
Fasten a piece of candle to a wire. Light it and immerse it in 
the jar, filled with the exhalations of the lungs. The flame 
will instantly expire. The reason of its going out is, that the 
jar is filled with carbonic acid gas, a deadly poison. This ex¬ 
periment teaches a very impressive lesson on ventilation. The 
same carbonic acid gas, which has been exhaled into the jar, is 
being constantly breathed in unventilated rooms, bedrooms, 
schoolrooms, halls, churches, etc., and the effects are most 
pernicious. Life expires as the lighted candle, not as suddenly 
always, but as surely. 

The Foul Air of Wells and Mines.—Carbonic acid gas 
being heavier than air, as can be proved by inverting the jar in 
the last experiment over the light, thus pouring the gas on the 
flame and extinguishing it, sinks into low places, where it re¬ 
mains. Wells are often filled with it, and persons frequently- 
have lost their lives by going down into such wells. To tes 


5 ° 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


air in a well, lower a light into it. If the flame goes out, it 
is death to venture down. The carbonic acid gas can be ex¬ 
pelled from such a well, by suspending a piece of wet carpet 
down the middle of the well till it reaches within a foot or two 
of the surface of the water or the bottom. Set a bundle of 
straw afire and throw it down one side of the carpet. The air 
on that side of the well will be heated. It ascends, while the 
cold air rushes down the other side, and forces the foul air out 
at the top. 

Breathing—Inflation of the Lungs.—A small lamp chim¬ 
ney is closed at the upper end by a stopper, through which is 
a perforation. A short tube extends half way through the 
stopper, and a small balloon, such as are sold at county 
fairs, which squeaks when blown into, is fastened to the lower 
end. The bottom of the chimney is loosely covered with 
oiled silk to represent the human diaphragm. When this is 
pushed upward, the balloon contracts, and when the oiled silk 
is pulled downward, the pseudo lungs inflate. 

EXPERIMENTS ON THE BONES. 

1. To Show the Cross Structure of Bone.—Saw length¬ 
wise in two the bones of a sheep’s leg, or a calf’s leg, including 
the knee-joint end. Save one-half. Boil, scrape, and care¬ 
fully clean the other half. Note in the boiled part the compact 
and spongy parts, shaft, etc. Note on the other half, after 
trimming off the flesh the pinkish-white look of the bone, the 
marrow and its tiny specks of blood, etc.; in other words, the 
difference between the fresh (live) bone, and an old, dry one 
(dead) easily found for the purpose. 

2. To Show the Minute Structure of Bone.—Show 

the minute structure of bone by specimens of bone mounted on 
glass slides, and sold for microscopic use, costing only a few 
cents. If a microscope cannot be had, let each pupil draw a 
blackboard sketch of the microscopic look of bone. 

3. To Show the Animal Part of Bone.—Get a chick¬ 
en’s leg, or a sheep’s rib. Scrape and clean. Put one of the 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


51 


bones to soak into a mixture of four tablespoonfuls of muriatic 
acid to one pint of water. A wide-mouthed bottle is the best 
thing to hold it; next, an earthen bowl. Soak from five days to 
a week. It can now be bent, twisted and even tied into a knot, 
showing that the earthy matter has been dissolved. The speci¬ 
men can be kept for successive classes by keeping it in a strong 
brine or dilute alcohol (half alcohol and half water). 

4. To Show the Earthy, or Mineral Part of Bone.—Get 

a large soup bone from the table. Roast it on a bright, hot coal 
fire for three hours. Do it carefully, and get a good specimen 
free from bone black. The animal matter has now been 
burned out. The earthy part, a white, brittle mass, is now 
seen, showing every outline of the bone. Crumble parts 
of it between the fingers, and otherwise experiment upon it. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH THE MUSCLES. 

1. To Show the Gross Structure of Muscles.—Get 
about half a pound of lean corned beef, a strip, with the fibers 
running all one way. Have it thoroughly boiled. Let it cool, 
and press it with the weight of several flatirons. Put it on a 
firm board or table, and pick it in pieces with two darning nee¬ 
dles. Note the connective tissue, the larger muscular fibers. 
Pick with the needles until the fibers are too small to manage. 
Continue with a hand magnifying-glass. Examine the tiniest 
bit of fiber with the microscope. 

2. Again, boil a beef shin-bone for several hours. Note 
as before the coarse structure of the muscular fibers. Cut away 
the muscles and dissect, to examine the fibrous tissue, fat tissue, 
ligaments, and cartilage, or gristle. 

3. To Show How Muscles Contract and Relax.—Get 
the lower part of a sheep’s leg at the market, with the foot or 
hoof still on; dissect with a sharp knife one or more muscles, 
leaving the insertion, Even if it is roughly done, it is no 
matter; for the fibers can be carefully smoothed into place with 
a knife-b ade, stained with carmine ink, and made to look 


52 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


natural as life. Better make the dissection a week or so ahead 
of time, and let the parts harden a little in dilute alcohol. 
Then stain, and get it ready just at the time needed. The con¬ 
traction and relaxation of muscles are thus roughly shown. 

EXPERIMENTS ON FOOD AND DRINK. 

1. To Show Albumen.—The albumens are all rich in one 
or more of the following organic substances: Albumen, casein, 
fibrine, gelatine, gluten, and legumen. Boil an egg hard. The 
white is albumen hardened by heat. 

2. To Show Casein.—Pour some liquid rennet, vinegar, 
ora little weak acid, into some milk. A w r hitish substance (the 
curd) separates from it. This nitrogenous substance is casein, 
the chief constituent of cheese. 

To Show Fibrine.—Take a piece of lean meat, and wash 
it thoroughly in water, squeezing and pressing it well in a 
lemon squeezer. A whitish, stringy mass is obtained, which 
is the fibrine. The albumen is dissolved in the w r ater. Boil 
the water after the meat has been washed. The heat coagulates 
the albumen. 

4. To Show Gelatine.—Boil a bone a long time. Most 
of the animat matter will be dissolved. The substance thus 
dissolved is gelatine. 

5. To Show Gluten.—Put a handful of flour into a mus¬ 
lin bag, and squeeze it well in a basin of water. The water 
becomes milky; while a sticky, yellowish-white substance re¬ 
mains in the bag. This sticky substance is the gluten. Allow 
the water to stand, and the starch settles at the bottom in a 
white powder. 


TESTS. 

Lime Water.—Take a jar full of clear pure water, and 
blow into it through a tube. The water will become turbid or 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


53 


cloudy. This is due to the carbonic acid of the lungs combin¬ 
ing with the lime, and forming carbonate of lime or chalk. 
This is* the principle on which whitewash becomes hard on 
walls. 

Tests for the Purity of Water.—In suspected potable 
water for persons who can not command chemical analysis, the 
following tests are recommended, as being generally available 
and reliable. 

Color. —Fill a bottle made of colorless glass with the water. 
Look through the water at some black object; the water should 
appear perfectly colorless and free from suspended matter. A 
muddy or turbid appearance indicates the presence of soluble 
organic matter, or of soluble matter in suspension. It should 
be as “clear as crystal.” 

Odor. —Empty out some of the water, leaving the bottle 
half full; cork up the bottle and place for a few hours in a 
warm place; shake up the water, remove the cork, and critically 
smell the air contained in the bottle. If it has any smell, and 
especially if the odor is in the least repulsive, the water should 
be rejected for domestic use. By heating the water to boiling, 
an odor is evolved sometimes that otherwise does not appear. 

Another Test for Water.—Drop a crystal of acetate of 
lead, sugar of lead, into a glass of water. If the water turns 
milky, it is hard, it contains lime in solution. Soft water, rain 
water, or cistern water, remains clear. 

Test for Acid.—When a bit of litmus paper is dipped into 
water containing acid, a drop of lemon juice for example, the 
purple color of the paper immediately changes to red. 

Test for Alkali.—When the red litmus is dipped into water 
containing alkali, such as wood ashes, soda, ammonia, etc., it 
at once changes again to blue. Turmeric paper changes from 
brown to yellow. Litmus paper is made by steeping some 
unsized paper into a solution of litmus; turmeric paper, into a 
solution of turmeric, blood root. 


54 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


Purple Cabbage Test.—The leaves of purple cabbage can 
be obtained very easily. Make an infusion of them. Strain 
it clear and add a little alcohol to keep it from molding. 
Keep in a bottle, it is a test for acids. A little of this purple 
liquid poured into any liquid containing acid will turn it red. 

Experiment with Cabbage.—With so simple an article as 
red cabbage, a very beautiful effect can be rendered in the fol¬ 
lowing manner: Cut three leaves of cabbage into small pieces, 
and after placing them in a basin, pour a pint of boiling water 
over them, letting them stand an hour; then pour off the liquid 
into a decanter. It will be of a fine blue color. Then take 
four wine-glasses; into one put six drops of strong vinegar; 
into another six drops of solution of soda; into a third the same 
quantity of a strong solution of alum; and let the fourth glass 
remain empty. Fill up the glasses from the decanter, and the 
liquid containing the acid will quickly become a beautiful red; 
that in the glass containing the soda will be a fine green; that 
poured into the empty one will remain unchanged. By adding 
a little vinegar to the green it will immediately change to red; 
and on adding a little of the solution of soda to the red it will 
assume a fine green—thus showing the action of acids and 
alkalies on vegetable blues. 


HOW VARIOUS INSTRUMENTS ARE MADE. 

Thermometer.—An air thermometer, which will illustrate 
the principle of the mercury thermometer, can be made thus: 
Take a small bottle, a gas bottle is best, as it will not break 
by heating. Any ordinary medicine bottle will do, if not 
heated too rapidly. Fit a cork tightly to it and drill a hole 
through the cork, so as to run a tube through. Hold the end 
of the tube under water, and heat the bottle by means of a 
lamp. The air in the bottle expands rapidly when heated, as 
the mercury in a thermometer does on a warm day. The 
heated air will be forced out of the bottle, and pass through 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


55 


the water. When the lamp is removed the air in the bottle 
contracts, and the water is forced through the tube into the 
bottle. The lamp can be applied to the bottle or withdrawn, 
causing the expansion and contraction of the air, forcing the 
water out and in at the tube. 

Barometer — Cartesian Diver.—When there is much 
moisture in the air it becomes specifically lighter, because the 
particles of moisture held in suspension are very alternated, 
and its pressure is therefore less on the mercury of the barom¬ 
eter, which causes it to fall, as may be illustrated by the Car¬ 
tesian Diver. Take a small homoeopathic medicine bottle, a 
two dram bottle. Any dqctor or druggist has them. Bore a 
hole through the cork fitting it, and pass a small tube through 
the cork, so that it reaches nearly to the bottom of the vial. 
Fill the bottle about half with water. Place it cork down¬ 
ward into a jar nearly filled with water. The bottle must be 
so filled with water that it just floats in the jar. Take a thin 
piece of gum elastic, or India rubber cloth, and tie it tightly 
over the mouth of the jar. When you press your finger on 
the gum the small bottle descends in the jar. When you re¬ 
move your finger the bottle rises. This is a Cartesian Diver, 
and illustrates the compression of the air, which communi¬ 
cates, through the tube, with the air in the vial, causing a com¬ 
pression and expansion there, which forces it up and down. 

This is the principle of the barometer, and explains how 
the probabilities are made out. When there is a pressure in 
some part of the United States, caused by the dryness of the 
air, this is telegraphed to the signal office, and a rising barom¬ 
eter and fair weather are prognosticated for that section of the 
country toward which the high pressure moves. When there 
is a low pressure, caused by moisture in the atmosphere in one 
part of the country, this is telegraphed to the signal station, 
and falling weather is predicted for that section of country 
toward which the low pressure moves. 

The Davy Safety Lamp.—Get a piece of wire gauze three 
inches square. Hold this over a flame. The flame will not 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


56 

burn on top of the gauze, but the gas can be plainly seen as 
it passes through above the flame. It can be lit with a match 
above. This is the principle of the Davy Safety Lamp. The 
explosive gas in mines passes through the meshes of the lan¬ 
tern, but though it ignites in the lantern, causing a slight ex¬ 
plosion, the flame is so much cooled by passing through the 
gauze, that it does not ignite the gas on the outside, and thus 
insures safety to the miners. 

A Telephone.—A telephone between the schoolhouse and 
your home, or between two houses, is a great convenience and 
can be easily made. The one which we are about telling you 
how to make will answer just as well as an electric telephone, 
provided the distance of the line is not over a quarter of a 
mile. Any boy can make it. We have seen one in use here 
at Allentown, which served to communicate between a gentle¬ 
man’s store and his dwelling house, several squares distant. 
Conversations could be carried on as satisfactorily as if the 
speakers had been in adjacent rooms. 

Get a piece of good smooth pine board, 16 by 13 inches, and 
% inches thick. Cut a hole in it, 9 inches in diameter. To 
the ends of the board nail strips of the same kind of wood, 3 
inches wide by %, inch thick and 13 inches long. Varnish the 
board. Buy a finished calf skin drum-head at a music store. 
Or in butchering time inflate a hog’s bladder, and use it when 
dry, or get one from your butcher. The bladder will not do 
quite as well as the drum-head, but nearly. Perhaps you have 
an old drum in the house that has become useless; if so, take 
the heads off it. Cut a piece large enough to tack over the hole 
in the board. Tack it down tightly and smoothly, drawing the 
tacks about half an inch from the edge of the skin. Punch a 
hole through the center of the skin about quarter of an inch in 
diameter. Take a piece of tin about the size of a copper cent 
and punch two holes through it. Pass a piece of copper wire 
several feet in length through the holes and twist the ends to¬ 
gether. Draw the wire down through the hole on the calf skin 
and hang a weight of 30 pounds upon it. This is for the pur- 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


57 


pose of stretching the skin. Wet the skin thoroughly on both 
sides. It will stretch and form a concave surface. In several 
hours it will dry, when the weight can be removed. Now bore 
a half inch hole through the side of the house, and place your 
disc upon the wall, so that the hole in the disc comes exactly 
over the hole in the wall. Nail or screw the disc fast to the 
wall. Now take No. 15 copper wire and pass it through the 
hole in the building and through the hole of the disc, and fasten 
the wire to a piece of metal, or a cent, or a button, having a 
hole bored through it. The wire must not touch anything 
solid on its entire length. Draw the wire tightly, so that the 
cent or the button is pulled tightly against the calf skin;' and 
run the wire to the other disc in the building with which you 
are going to connect. Tighten the wire carefully and well, and 
fasten it at the other disc the same way as before described. 
Put poles with insulators under, if the wire sags. The necks 
of bottles will answer for insulators. Remember the tighter 
the wire, the better will be your telephone. 

Talk slowly and distinctly, holding the mouth about six inches 
from the button. You will have a very satisfactory and useful 
telephone. 

The Revolving Siphon.—Take a tall, narrow, round ves¬ 
sel, and fit two pieces of wood across the inside. Bore holes 
through the pieces, so that they will be in the center of the 
vessel, the pieces being one above the other. Bend a small 
tube of any material which bends readily into a siphon, keep¬ 
ing the legs straight, with two right angles at the top. Next 
turn the end of the longest outward, so that the bent part will 
correspond with the line of a circle, the shortest leg being in 
the center. When the siphon is properly placed the bent end 
is horizontal. Put the short leg loosely down through the 
holes in the pieces, after which push it tightly half an inch 
through a cork, large enough to float and sustain the siphon. 
The long leg will now be on the outside of the vessel. Pour 
clean water into the vessel until the cork nearly touches the 
cross piece. Charge the siphon by suction, and it will com- 


5 » 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


mence revolving rapidly around the vessel, continuing as long 
as any water remains, provided the inner leg is long enough. 

How to Make a Cheap Battery.—Take a good vegetable 
can, well tinned and free from rust. Take a small earthen¬ 
ware pot, a flower pot. Dip the upper part about one-third of 
its depth a number of times into a bowl containing melted wax. 
Now put the pot inside the tin can, and fill the space between 
the two with iron scraps, old nails, etc. Fill the pot with a 
solution of caustic potash or caustic soda. Be very careful not 
to touch the solution, as it is very destructive of animal tissue. 
Ge: a thick plate of zinc, roofing zinc, or rods of zinc. Make 
a wooden stopper to fit the earthen pot at the top. Pass ihe 
thin tang of zinc plate through a hole in this stopper. Seal 
the bung with the zinc in, tightly with pitch to the top of the 
pot, after the caustic alkali solution has been filled in. The 
liquid should rise higher than the wax on the walls of the cell. 
Join the tang of zinc by a copper wire with the tin of the next 
battery, if you have a series of them, or if only one attach a 
wire to the zinc tang and another to the tin can, and your bat¬ 
tery is complete. This battery will last for a long time, and 
the cost is only about twenty-five cents for one. It is as strong 
as an ordinary battery costing $5 per cell. 

How to Make a Cheap Telephone.—Two cigar boxes 

connected by a string or wire cable cord form an acoustic tele¬ 
phone which works very well, and is not covered by any 
patent. 

DISINFECTANTS. 

How to Disinfect Rooms, Water Closets, etc.—Dissolve 
two pounds of copperas, sulphate of iron, green vitriol (it costs 
about five cents a pound), in two gallons of water, and pour 
the solution freely around buildings and into privies. Chloride 
of lime is a good disinfectant, but it is much more expensive. 

A Cheap Disinfectant.—Take of nitrate of lead one heaped 
teaspoonful and dissolve in a quart of boiling water, then take 
four heaped teaspoonfuls of common table salt and dissolve it 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


59 


in a bucket nearly full of cold water; now add the quart of 
boiling water containing the nitrate of lead, mix up with a stick, 
and the article is complete. This purifier is useful to be 
thrown into cesspools, water closets, decaying offensive sub¬ 
stances creating a nuisance, to neutralize the effluvia from 
scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhus and typhoid fevers, dysentery, 
small-pox, in fact, in all diseases of an infectious or contagious 
character. It is as clear as water, and can be sprinkled around 
the room and over the bedclothes occupied by persons labor¬ 
ing under infectious or contagious diseases. This disinfectant 
is equal if not superior, to Pratt’s chlorides, bromo chloralum, 
chlorides of lime and soda, and is free from any unpleasant 
odor. It is very cheap, costing only about two cents a bucket¬ 
ful, and the nitrate of lead can be obtained at nearly every 
drugstore, and the salt being in every house, costs almost 
nothing. 


GEOGRAPHY EXPERIMENTS. 

How to Make Volcanoes, Show the Formation of Moun¬ 
tains, etc.—See pages No. 29-30. 

How to Show that the Earth is a Sphere.—Circumnavi¬ 
gation, eclipses, ships coming to land, etc., have never been 
satisfactory proofs, in our experience, and most pupils have 
not seen any of them, and while they take for granted the 
statements of the teacher or the book; may as well take the 
fact itself of the earth being a globe for granted. The spher¬ 
ical shape of the sky, and the circular shape of the horizon are, 
however, ocular demonstrations of the earth’s rotundity. Take 
your pupils to the highest point within easy access from the 
schoolhouse. The surface of the earth, as far as the eye can 
reach, is bounded by a circle. Even from the highest point, 
places fifty miles distant can not be seen. Why not ? They 
are below the circular horizon. Now take a globe, or a ball, 
or an orange, and look down upon it perpendicularly. A circle 
bounds the line of vision, and objects below the line are in vis- 



6o 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


ible. This is the best, most convincing proof, that can be 
given in the schoolroom of the earth’s rotundity. 

To Prove that the Earth Revolves.—The succession of 
day and night, the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, 
are no satisfactory proofs of the earth’s revolution on its axis, 
from west to east. When water is poured from a funnel, firmly 
fixed, and where the air can not disturb it, it will fall in a spi¬ 
ral column to the earth, always twisting, north of the equator, 
from west to east, that is, from right to left, contrary to the 
direction of the movement of the hands of the watch. Whirl¬ 
winds, unless affected by local causes, twist in the same direc¬ 
tion. This is a most satisfactory proof of the revolution of the 
earth from west to east, influencing by its motion and centrifu¬ 
gal force, the air, so that it gives this impetus to the column of 
water. 

The Tides.—To explain why high tides occur on opposite 
sides of the globe, at the same time, when the sun and moon 
are both on the same side, take a tumbler partly filled with 
water, and drop an orange into it. N ow lift the orange a short 
distance from the bottom of the tumbler. There will be water 
underneath, and if the water on the top of the orange could 
be lifted up with it, as is the case with waters of the ocean, on 
the side toward the sun and moon, the orange being lifted out 
of the water below, will illustrate how the earth itself is lifted 
out of the water, how the solid matter of the globe, being more 
cohesive than the liquid, will be lifted up, leaving the water 
behind, and forming a high tide on the side away from the sun 
and moon. 

Why the Summits of Mountains are Cold.—Students of 
geography often are perplexed when they know that the sum¬ 
mits of mountains are nearer the sun than their base, to explain 
why there is such a degree of cold at the top. This can be 
easily explained by heating an iron cone to redness, and then 
permitting it to cool. The apex cools very rapidly, while the 
base remains heated a long while. So the mountain summit 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


61 

gives off its heat, on account of the comparatively small amount 
of solid matter, its distance from the great supply of heat and 
the cool air, from the higher regions of the atmosphere, being 
brought in constant contact with it. 

To Show the Currents of the Ocean.—Take an oblong 
glass vessel or tank, fill it with water, in which, at one end of 
the tank some coloring matter has been placed. Apply heat 
to this part of the tank. A current will be started. The col¬ 
ored warm water will be forced away, and the colder water will 
rush in to occupy its place. Thus warm and cold currents in¬ 
terchange in the ocean, passing from the equator toward the 
poles. 

A skillful teacher can make numerous similar experiments in 
geography. 


• REVOLUTION. 

To Prove the Earth’s Revolution.—Fix a rod, or tube, or 
telescope pointing at a star in the east or west, and the earth’s 
revolution will be apparent in a moment, turning the tube away 
from the star. Point it at stars about the north pole, and those 
on one side will be found going in an opposite direction from 
those on the other, and very much slower than those about the 
equator. 

Maelstroms.—Throw thin scrapings of camphor on water, 
and they will spin about for some time. But oil or grease 
dropped upon the surface will make them cease to move, as if 
by a spell. The motion is more vigorous in hot than in cold 
water, but ceases more quickly. Or soak slices of cork in sul¬ 
phuric ether for three days in a closed vessel, and use them in¬ 
stead of the camphor. 

Hot Water Lighter than Cold.—Pour into a glass tube 
ten inches long and one inch in diameter, a little water colored 
with dye; then fill it up carefully with clear water, not mixing 



62 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


them; apply heat to the bottom of the tube, and the colored 
water will ascend and mingle with the other. 

How the Hard Crust on Plants is Formed.—Corn stalks, 
grain stalks and even grass have a hard coating on the outside. 
This is the reason that knives, scythes and cutting instruments 
in general, are dulled by long use. This crust is silicate or 
quartz. Grains of sand are almost pure silicate. Soils which 
contain no sand are not adapted to raising cereals, because the 
stalk does not harden sufficiently. How the sand is dissolved 
is shown by the following experiments: Mix one part of sand 
with three of carbonate of potash, melt the mixture; carbonic 
acid is driven off, and the silica and potash combine and form 
a glass (silicated potash). This dissolves readily in water; pour 
out the silicated potash on an iron plate; dissolve a portion of 
it in water. 

To Show How Water Freezes on the Surface.—Mate¬ 
rials: a fruit jar filled with water, some pieces of ice large 
enough to go into the jar, and a thermometer to test the tem¬ 
perature of the water as it gradually cools; some bread or 
cracker crumbs help to show the circulation better than clear 
water. As the water at the top of the jar becomes cooled, it 
also becomes heavier, and sinks; while the water at the bot¬ 
tom, being warmer and lighter, rises, until the entire mass of 
water is at a temperature of 40° ; after this the colder it 
becomes the lighter it. becomes, and the more persistently it re¬ 
mains at the top. Hence, though you may cool the upper 
part to freezing, the greater part will be below 40°. In winter 
the cold weather acts precisely like the ice in the pitcher. At 8° 
degrees above freezing, circulation stops. If water was like 
other liquids, the circulation would be kept up until all our 
streams and lakes were frozen solid. The surface is saturated 
with water more or less, and the frost does not penetrate to a 
sufficient depth to kill the roots and seeds that are buried under 
it. But if water were like other liquids, the soil would remain 
frozen to the depth of many feet. Thus it appears that the 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 63 

very existence of vegetation is owing to this apparent excep¬ 
tion in nature’s laws. 


PHOTOGRAPHING. 

Chemical Effect of Light.—Wash a piece of paper, which 
was first dipped in very weak salt water, over with a strong 
solution of nitrate of silver (lunar caustic). Dry it in the 
dark. Expose it to the sun’s light, and though colorless be¬ 
fore, it will now turn black. This explains the art of pho¬ 
tographing. A picture may be made by placing a dried plant, 
feather, bit of lace, etc. * upon it previous to exposing to light. 

Photographing Leaves, etc.—Make a solution of bi-chro¬ 
mate of potash. Put white paper in the solution and dry it in 
a dark place. Put a leaf on the paper, a piece of black cloth 
underneath, and a piece of glass on top. Fasten the glass, 
paper and cloth tightly together, by means of a wire clothes¬ 
pin. Lay it in the sun, so that the rays fall on the glass. In 
a few minutes the leaf will be photographed. 

How to Take Pictures.—Throw a few crystals of sulphu- 
ret of iron into a candy jar. Pour a small quantity of water 
on them, and add some sulphuric acid. A gas with a very of¬ 
fensive odor will be given off. This is sulphureted hydrogen, 
and will at once tarnish a bright metal, as a piece of silver, if 
moistened and held into it. It is the same gas which is held 
in solution in the waters of sulphur springs. When the out¬ 
lines of a picture are drawn with a new pen, dipped in a solu¬ 
tion of sugar of lead, the lines are invisible on white paper. 
The moment this paper is held over the jar in which the gas 
is evolved, the lines will become black. Great merriment can 
be produced if pictures are drawn and persons requested to 
look at the apparently blank paper. When the paper, with 
the invisible drawing on, is held over the jar from which the 
gas escapes, the outlines become visible. This is the process 
of fortune-telling sometimes seen at county fairs. 



64 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


CHEMICAL UNION. 

Chemical Action.—Mix together oil and water in a vial; 
however much they may be shaken, they will not combine. It 
is a mechanical action merely. The oil will come to the top, 
the water will be at the bottom. (Here the operatoi can ask a 
dozen practical questions, such as, “Why do they not com¬ 
bine?” “Why does the oil always come to the top?” etc. The 
ingenuity of the teacher will suggest these.) 

Add to the oil and water a little pearlash. Shake the vial; 
they will unite chemically, forming soap. (Ques.—Why? What 
is soap ? etc.) 

Take a vial about six or seven inches long, and about % 
of an inch in diameter. Put in first, iron filings, secondly, 
chalk, thirdly, colored water, and lastly, oil. However much 
the vial is shaken these will settle as at first. 

Instead of the oil pour gently in nitric acid (aqua fortis). 
The whole will unite chemically. 

Mix a pound of raw sugar with a gallon of water; in a few 
days it will ferment, and the whole change to vinegar. In 
this way vinegar is made chemically. Two-thirds of the vine¬ 
gar sold at stores is made thus. 

To Make Glass.—Mix together salt and potash, heat them 
in the fire, and glass will be produced. 

Two Gases Form a Solid.—Brush the inside of a tumbler 
with a feather dipped in hydrochloric acid; wet another tum¬ 
bler in the same manner with liquid ammonia. If now one 
tumbler be inserted over the other, the two invisible gases will 
unite and form an opaque solid—chloride of ammonia—sal am¬ 
moniac. Sal ammoniac is prepared in commerce by treating 
the ammoniacal liquor of gas works with chlorohydric acid. 

The Well of Fire.—Add gradually one ounce, by measure, 
of sulphuric acid, to five or six ounces of water in an earthen¬ 
ware basin; add to it also, gradually, about three-quarters of 
an ounce of granulated zinc. A rapid production of hydrogen 
gas will instantly take place. Then add, from time to time, a 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


6 5 

few pieces of phosphorus of the size of a pea. A multitude of 
gas bubbles will be produced, which will fire on the surface of 
the effervescing liquid; the whole surface of the liquid will be¬ 
come luminous, and fire balls, with jets of fire, will dart from 
the bottom through the fluid with great rapidity, and a hissing 
noise. 


EXPERIMENTS WITH METALS. 

Burning Potassium on Water. —Throw a piece of metallic 
potassium on water. It ignites and burns with a beautiful 
violet and blue flame the moment it touches the water, and con¬ 
tinues to roll about on the surface of the water till the metal is 
consumed. This is called assuming the spheroidal state, and 
is explained, the same as a drop of water rolling about on the 
smooth surface of a flat iron, when it is very hot. A thin at¬ 
mosphere of steam is produced by the heat which surrounds 
the globule, and prevents it from remaining quiet. In the case 
of the potassium the affinity of the oxygen of the water for the 
metal is so great that the chemical action produces intense heat, 
which inflames the hydrogen of the water, causing the bluish, 
and in the metal the violet flame. 


MAGNESIUM. 

Artificial Sunlight. —Hold a piece of magnesium wire or 
ribbon in a flame. It soon becomes heated sufficiently to burn 
with a brilliant light. This is the best imitation of sunlight. 
The experiment should be made at night in a dark room. The 
light is more beautiful even than the electric light. It is very 
easily made. Magnesium ribbon costs about four cents a foot. 

Fuse. —Printing paper, steeped in a strong solution of salt¬ 
peter, and then dried, can be lit, when the fire will pass along, 
5 




66 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


burning it gradually. In this way the fuses used in blasting are 
made. 

Beautiful Orange Color.—Bi-chromate of potash, dis¬ 
solved in water, makes a pretty orange color. A little acetate 
of lead added, changes jt to a beautiful yellow, which begins 
to precipitate, forming a sediment of chrome yellow. 

To Make Looking Glasses.—Take a piece of glass washed 
clean and dried; lay it on an amalgam of mercury and tin foil. 
The tin foil around tobacco packages can be used. When 
mercury is poured on the tin foil, the two metals combine and 
form an amalgam. As soon as the clean glass is pressed on 
this, it will adhere and produce a mirror. 

Soda Water.—A teaspoonful of baking soda, placed in a 
pint of water, and half a teaspoonful of tartaric acid thrown 
in, will produce soda water. It can be sweetened and flavored 
with lemon syrup which makes it palatable. The bubbles seen 
are carbonic acid, which taken into the stomach is healthful, 
but when inhaled is poisonous. 

Burning of Metals and Gases.— Put a little gunpowder 
in a wooden vessel and mix iron filings with it. Set fire to the 
mixture. The powder will burn with flame, but the filings 
with a beautiful red light. All metals burn without flame; all 
gases, with flame. Here is a beautiful distinction. Be careful 
in making this experiment. Gunpowder is dangerous. 

To Make Steel from Iron.—Heat a piece of sheet iron 
to redness, spread on it powdered ferrocyanide of potassium, 
and then dip in cold water. It will become so hard that it 
can not be filed. 

HOW TO DECOMPOSE WATER. 

Sodium Experiments.—Sodium is an interesting metal for 
various reasons. It is lighter than water, and hence floats on 
the surface of water. The only other metal which is lighter 
than water is potassium. Sodium is much cheaper than potas¬ 
sium, and possesses almost all the properties of potassium. 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


67 


For ten cents a dram of it can be had, or almost an ounce vial 
full. There is no danger whatever in experimenting with it in 
cold water. The following experiments are very easily made: 
1. Show that it floats on water, by throwing a small piece into 
a tumbler full of water. 2. It illustrates the spheroidal state, 
by forming a small globule the moment it comes in contact 
with water. 3. It melts as soon as it reaches the surface of 
the water. 4. It shoots about on the surface of the water. 
5. It burns with a beautiful yellow flame, on warm water. 6. It 
decomposes water into oxygen and hydrogen. 7. It can be 
employed in setting free hydrogen, thus: Take a piece of 
sodium, about the size of a grain of corn, wrap it in dry tissue 
paper, introduce it in an inverted test tube or narrow jar filled 
with water. It rises to the top, and as soon as it extricates 
itself from the paper in which it is wrapped, it begins to spin 
around, and will continue to do so till it is entirely consumed, 
and the jar is filled with hydrogen, which has been set free 
from the water in the tube, the oxygen having combined with 
the sodium and formed an oxyd. If the hand is held over the 
mouth of the tube, which is thus turned with the mouth up¬ 
ward, and a lighted match applied, a beautiful hydrogen flame 
will shoot up. This is the easiest known method to decom¬ 
pose water. 


BLACKBOARDS. 

How to Make Blackboards. —Many teachers shift along 
without blackboard surface, and are crippled in their work all 
the year, because they have only a four by six feet blackboard, 
and the school officers do not provide any additional surface. 
O ye poor, miserable, wretched souls, you are to be pitied in¬ 
deed! Go to work and make your blackboards. Cover the 
four walls of your schoolroom, from the wainscoting up, as 
far as children can reach. Don’t sit down and cry a la Hagar 
in the Wildejrness, because there is no water, when, if you will 



68 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


but open your eyes, you behold a supply just at hand. Get 
up, stop your whining, and make your own blackboard surface. 
How? A few papers of lampblack mixed in sour milk, will 
make an excellent coating for the wall, that will last you an 
entire year, at an expense of twenty cents. 

Another Preparation for Blackboards. —Take draught¬ 
ing paper and paint it with ivory black in oil, made thin by 
turpentine, two-thirds, to one-third of Japan. Give it two 
coats. This makes an excellent blackboard surface, which 
can be tacked up anywhere. 

A Cheap and Beliable Paint for School Blackboards.— 

We are often asked to furnish a recipe for a cheap and reliable 
preparation or paint for blackboards. The following fills the 
bill. For seventy-five cents the side of any ordinary school¬ 
room can be covered with a. blackboard surface, that will last 
for years, and will be found excellent. Here is such a recipe: 

Half pound of lampblack, ten cents; two pounds flour of 
emery, twenty-five cents; quarter pint Japan dryer, five cents; 
half pint copal varnish, ten cents; half pint boiled linseed oil, 
five cents; two and three-quarter quarts turpentine, twenty 
cents. One gallon blackboard paint, seventy-five cents. This 
will cover 150 square feet with two coats. 

These materials must be applied with a stiff brush, and 
stirred up from the bottom, at every brushful, to keep the grit 
thoroughly mixed with the liquid materials. 


FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS. 

Colored Fires, for Exhibitions, Tableaux, etc.: 

Red. —Sixty-one parts chlorate potash, sixteen sulphur, and 
twenty-three carbonate strontium. 

Purplish Red. —Sixty-one chlorate of potassium, sixteen sul¬ 
phur, and twenty-three chalk. 

Rose-red. —Sixty-one chlorate potassium, sixteen sulphur, 
and twenty-three chloride calcium. 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 69 

Orange. —Fifty-two chlorate potassium, fourteen sulphur, 
and thirty-four chalk. 

Dark Blue .—Sixty chloride potash, sixteen sulphur, twelve 
carbonate of copper, and twelve alum. 

Green. —Seventy-three chlorate of potash, seventeen sulphur, 
and ten borax. 

All these contain sulphur, and can only be burned in the 
open air. The following two are free from sulphur, and can 
be burned in a room. 

Red Fire .—Two parts chlorate potash, two nitrate strontium, 
and one ground shellac. 

Green Fire .—Two parts chlorate potash, two nitrate barium, 
one ground shellac. 

Thunder Powder. —Powder separately half a teaspoonful 
of chlorate of potash, and half as much sulphur; mix with the 
fingers, and then put the powder on a shovel over the fire. A 
loud report will be produced. There is no danger in this ex¬ 
periment. 

How Matches are Made. —Matches are first dipped in sul¬ 
phur, then in a composition which varies. The following is a 
type: 

Phosphorus, 4 parts; niter, 10 parts; fine glue, 6 parts; red 
ocher, 5 parts; smalt, 2 parts. 


USEFUL RECIPES. 

1, How to Remove Grease. —White goods wash with soap 
or lve. Colored cottons wash with lukewarm soap lyes. Col¬ 
ored woolens, soap lye, and add some ammonia. Silks absorb 
the grease with French chalk and dissolve with benzine or 
ether. 

2. How to Remove Paint or Varnish. —On white or col¬ 
ored linens, cottons or woolens, use turpentine, alcohol, lye 
and soap. On silks use benzine, ether and mild soap very 
cautiously. 



70 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


To Make Mucilage. —Take two parts of gum dextrine and 
add i part acetic acid with 5 parts of water. Dissolve over a 
water bath and add 1 part alcohol. 

To Make Sozodont. —Potassium carbonate %, ounce, honey 
4 ounces, alcohol two ounces, water 10 ounces, oil of winter- 
green and oil of rose, to flavor sufficient. 

To Make the Best Hair Wash. —Make half a pint soap¬ 
suds with pure white soap and warm water; on rising any 
morning, but before applying it brush the whole scalp well while 
the hair is perfectly dry, with the very best Russia bristle 
brush; scrub back and forth with a will, let not any 
portion of the surface escape. When brushing the top and 
front, lean forward, that the particles may fall. After this op¬ 
eration is finished, strike the ends of the bristles on the hearth 
or on a board, next pass the coarse part of the comb through 
the bristles; next brush or flap the hair back and forth with 
the hand until no dust is seen to fall; then with the balls of 
the fingers dipped in the soapsuds, rub the fluid into the scalp 
and about the roots of the hair; do this patiently and thor¬ 
oughly. Finally, rinse with clear water and absorb as much 
of the water from the hair as possible with a dry cloth; then 
(after allowing the hair to dry a little more by evaporation, but 
not to dry entirely) dress it as usual, always under all circum¬ 
stances passing the comb through the hair slowly and gently, 
so as not to break any one off or tear out by the roots. 

By this operation the alkali of the soap unites with the nat¬ 
ural oil of the hair, and leaves it perfectly clean and beautifully 
silken, and with cold water washings of the whole head and 
neck and ears every morning, it will soon be found that the 
hair will “ dress ” as handsomely as if “ oiled to perfection;” 
with the great advantage of conscious cleanliness, giving, too, 
the general appearance of a greater profusion of hair than 
when it is plastered flat on the scalp with variously scented 
hog’s fat, as is the common custom. 

How to Remove Rusty Screws. —A Russian plan is to 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


71 


heat a flat iron bar to a cherry red and press it in the head of 
the screw for a couple of minutes, after which the screw be¬ 
comes loosened, and is easily extracted with a screw driver. 


COLORS AND INKS. 

How color is produced by chemical action may be shown by 
placing a crystal of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) in water, 
and after it has been dissolved, adding a small quantity of 
hartshorn, aqua ammonia. It will at once become beautifully 
blue. Whence the blue ? A greenish and a colorless liquid 
have been combined. Chemical action has produced it, just 
as the same action produces the green of the grass, the blue of 
the morning glory, the red of * he rose, the yellow of the golden 
rod, etc. No coloring matter is ever introduced into these 
plants, to produce the varied colors of their flowers. Colorless 
water, in all cases, combines with the plant and chemical ac¬ 
tion produces the colors. Add to the blue a few drops of any 
strong acid, sulphuric for example. No one could guess, unless 
he had a knowledge of chemistry, what color would be the re¬ 
sult. The liquid becomes colorless. This is again due to the 
chemical action, the acid neutralizing the alkali, and restoring 
the original properties of the salt or copper. 

Inks are made in the same way. Sulphate of iron, green 
vitriol, or copperas, is the basis of all black inks. When a 
crystal of it is dissolved in water, and some galls or tincture 
of galls are added, the liquid immediately turns black. This 
is again chemical action producing color. The liquid produced 
by boiling gall-nuts, or, which is the same thing, white oak or 
red oak bark, is tannin. When this tannin is put into the sul¬ 
phate of iron solution, chemical action takes place, and the 
sulphate of iron is changed into tannate of iron. When oxalic 
acid is introduced into the liquid, chemical action again ensues, 
and oxalate of iron is formed, which makes the liquid alto- 



72 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


gether colorless. This explains how to take ink stains out of 
any substance. 

Bed Ink. —Get five cents worth of the best carmine. Pour 
an ounce of water over it, and then add half a teaspoonful of 
aqua ammonia, spirits of hartshorn. In five minutes you will 
have an excellent red ink. If it is too thick, add a little water, 
if too thin, add a little carmine. 

Blue Ink. —Get five cents worth of b st Prussian blue. 
Pour two ounces of water on it. Add a few crystals of oxalic 
acid. Your blue ink is made and ready for writing. Thicken 
or thin it in the same way as the red above. 

Black Ink. —Take three half ounces of green vitriol, cop¬ 
peras, dissolve it in a quart of rain water. Add four ounces of 
gall nuts, powdered, or tincture of galls, or take common white 
oak bark and boil it in rain water till the liquid has a dark 
brown color, and you have the tincture of galls. Add this to 
the dissolved copperas. In two or three days the ink is ready 
for use. A little alcohol added keeps it from freezing, and a 
little sugar, or gum arabic gives it a glossy appearance. 

To Take Out Ink Spots. —Dissolve a little oxalic acid in 
water, and put the solution on the ink spot, then wash out with 
soap. 

To Take Out Acid Spots. —Put a few drops of aqua am¬ 
monia on the spot. 

Superior Black Ink. —The following receipt is given by 
the Scottish Society of Arts, as giving a black ink superior to 
all others: Three ounces of powdered nut galls, two ounces of 
sulphate of indigo, two ounces of copperas, a few cloves and 
one to one and a half ounces gum arabic for a gallon of ink. 
It requires no boiling. Soft water should be used, and each 
ingredient dissolved in quantities of water separately before 
mixing. 

An Excellent Blue Black Ink. —Take i pound bruised 
galls, i gallon boiling water, Sj^oz. ferrous sulphate (green 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


73 


vitriol) in solution, 3 ounces gum arabic, previously dissolved, 
and a few drops of an antiseptic, such as carbolic acid. Mac¬ 
erate the galls for twenty-four hours, strain the infusion, and 
add the other ingredients. When this is completed, mix it 
with a strong solution of fine Prussian blue in soft, clean 
water. 

Polish for Ladies' Kid Shoes, Leather Bags, etc. —Digest 
12 parts shellac, white turpentine 5, gum sandaric 2, lamp¬ 
black 1, with 4 parts spirits of turpentine and 96 of alcohol. 

How to Restore the Rubber Rings of Cans. —The rub¬ 
ber rings by the use of which fruit cans are made air-tight, 
after being used, become hard and unyielding, so much that 
fruit seldom keeps as well when they are used the second time. 
Though new ones cost but little, it is not always convenient 
to get them. Every one should know that the elasticity of the 
old ones can be restored, and that they can be made as good 
as new by soaking them a half-hour in a mixture of ammonia 
and water—two-thirds ammonia and one-third water. Try it. 

To Remove Freckles without Injury to the Skin. —Sul- 
pho-carbolate of zinc 2 parts, distilled glycerin 25 parts, rose 
water 25 parts, scented alcohol 5 parts. To be applied twice 
daily for from half an hour to an hour, and then washed off 
with cold water. 

To Remove Warts. —To remove warts painlessly, touch 
the wart with a little nitrate of silver, or with nitric acid, or 
with aromatic vinegar. The silver salt will produce a black 
and the nitric acid a yellow stain, either of which will wear off 
in a short while. The vinegar scarcely discolors the skin. 

Hair Oil that Does not Injure the Hair. —Castor oil l / 2 
pint, 95 per cent, alcohol y 2 pint, tincture cantharides y 2 
ounce, oil of bergamot 2 drachms. Color a pale pink with 
alkanet root. Many of the hair oils consist simply of almond 
or olive oil scented with a few drops of otto of roses, oil of 
musk or neroli, etc. 


74 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


Fireproof Paper, etc.—Make a saturated solution of alum, 
and soak some paper and thread in it several times, dry¬ 
ing thoroughly between each immersion. This will render 
these articles fireproof. A small ring may be suspended by 
a piece of the prepared thread, which upon being exposed to 
heat, will, if it burn to ashes, still support the ring. 

How to Prevent the Breakage of Glass Jars in Canning. 

—In fruit-canning season, the women of the household to 
whom we are so deeply indebted for the good things we eat, 
should be told that the trouble so many of them take in warm¬ 
ing glass cans before putting hot fruit into them, to prevent 
breaking, is all needless; that, in fact, it results in breaking 
more than it saves. By placing the cold can on a wet rag 
taken from a dish of cold water, it may be filled with fruit 
boiling hot without the least danger of breakage. The only 
requisite is, that the cloth be fully saturated—and with cold 
water. 


MISCELLANEOUS EXPERIMENTS. 

To Make Balloons.—Fill a bladder with hydrogen gas. 
This can be done by fixing the mouth of the bladder airtight 
to the vessel in which the hydrogen is generated. After the 
bladder is filled with hydrogen, tie its mouth over the stem of 
a tobacco pipe. Now make soap bubbles and inflate them 
with hydrogen. They will rise in the air to a great height. 
When touched by a light, they will explode with a beautiful 
flame as they ascend. 

Sound.—If a bell be struck, its tremulous motion may be 
felt by gently touching it with the finger. When the finger is 
pressed against the bell, the sound is stopped, because the vi¬ 
brations of the bell are interrupted. Attach a small piece of 
cork by a string to the bell; strike the bell, the cork vibrates 
with the bell. 

Sprinkle some fine sand over a square piece of window glass; 



EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


75 


hold it firmly by means of a pair of pliers, and draw a violin 
bow down the edge; the sand is put in motion, and finally set¬ 
tles itself in those parts of the glass which have the least vibra¬ 
tory motion. By changing the point by which the plate is held, 
or by varying the parts to which the violin bow is applied, the 
sand may be made to assume different beautiful shapes. 

Ice in Summer. —In i oz. of water, dissolve i oz. of nitrate 
of ammonia, and i oz. of carbonate of soda; into this solution 
place a metallic vessel filled with water, which will soon be 
converted into ice. This is the principle of the ice factories. 

Luminous Water. —Wet a lump of fine lump sugar with 
phosphorized ether. That is, phosphorus dissolved in ether. 
Throw the lump into a basin of water. The surface of the 
water will become luminous and show beautifully in the dark. 
The water should be bloodwarm. If the phosphorized ether 
be applied to the hands, they will become luminous in the 
dark. 

Ice Gun. —Let a tinsmith make a tube about one inch in 
diameter, and closed at one end. Place a small piece of ice in 
this gun and cork it tightly. Hold it over a flame until steam 
is formed, when the cork will fly out with a loud report. This 
illustrates the expansive force of steam, ice or water forming 
1,700 times its bulk when converted into steam. This experi¬ 
ment also shows boys how to shoot rabbits with a piece of ice. 

To Illustrate the Porosity of Liquids. —Fill a tumbler 
carefully with water up to the brim, so that the surface of the 
water is rounded. By dropping coins very carefully into the 
water edgeways, it will be found that even as many as five or 
six coins the size of a silver dollar can be dropped into the 
water before it overflows. 

How to Measure the Height of a Tree. —There is a very 
simple way of measuring the height of a tree which can be 
practiced .by any one on a sunny day or in bright moonlight. 
All the apparatus that is necessary is a straight stick of any 


76 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


length. Draw a circle with a radius (half the diameter) of a 
little less than the length of the stick. This will be done by 
holding one end of the stick, say two inches from its end, and 
moving the other end around, making the circle with a knife 
or a chip. Then place the stick in the ground exactly in the 
center of the circle, perfectly upright and press it down 
until the height of the stick is exactly the same as the radius of 
the circle. When the end of the shadow of the stick exactly 
touches the circle then also the shadow of the tree will be ex¬ 
actly in length the same measurement as its height. Of course, 
in such a case, the sun will be at an exact angle of forty degrees. 
Measurements of this character can be best effected in the sum¬ 
mer when the sun is powerful, and has reached to a good height 
in the heavens, and when the trees are clothed in living green 
so as to cast a dense shadow. To many to whom this idea 
may not have occurred it might be made annually a matter of 
interest, thus, on warm summer days to take the height of 
prominent trees, and so to compare growth from year to year. 

A Curious Experiment. —Take a piece of pasteboard about 
five inches square, roll it into a tube with one end just large 
enough to fit around the eye, and the other end rather smaller. 
Hold the tube between the thumb and finger of the right hand 
(do not grasp it with the whole hand); put the large end close 
against the right eye, and with the left hand hold a book 
against the side of the tube. Be sure and keep both eyes open 
and there will appear to be a hole through the book, and ob¬ 
jects seem as if seen through the hole instead of through the 
tube. The right eye sees through the tube, and the left eye 
sees the book, and the two appearances are so confounded 
together that they cannot be separated. The left hand can be 
held against the tube instead of the book, and the hole will 
seem to be seen through the hand. 

The Paper Crucible. —Take a small round bullet and wrap 
it up tightly, and with as few wrinkles as possible, in some 
writing paper. If this be properly managed, the bullet may 
now be melted over a candle, till it makes a hole in the bottom 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 77 

of the paper, and runs out without the rest of the paper being 
burned. 

A Handful of Boiling Water. —Fill a kettle with water 
and set it on the fire till it boils briskly; if it be then removed 
the hand may, with perfect safety , be placed underneath so as 
to support the kettle, while it would be scalded by merely 
touching the lid or upper surface. 

The Incombustible Thread. —Select a smooth circular 
pebble, and twist some common thread tightly round it; the 
pebble may now be suspended by the disengaged end of the 
thread in the flame of a candle, without the thread’s being 
burned. 

How to Make Beautiful Ornaments. —Take tortoise shells, 
or those of the small fresh water turtle, some of which are be¬ 
coming quite fashionable as parlor ornaments. To clean and 
polish the shells first wash them in warm, soft water, to which 
a little ammonia has been added, using a common hand brush. 
When clean, rub them with a cloth and paste made of whiting 
and a little water. When the shells feel smooth to the touch, 
wash this paste all off and dry, after which apply a few drops 
of sweet oil and rub them briskly with the ball of the thumb 
or the palm of the hand—or a piece of soft leather will answer. 

How to See Plants Grow. —Steep parsley seed in whiskey 
twenty-four hours, then take fine wood ashes two parts, to one 
part of rich earth, mix and place in a bowl with the parsley 
seed, sprinkle rainwater over it, and in fifteen minutes the 
seeds will sprout so that their growth can be examined. 

A Home-made Humming Top.—By taking any tin box, 
such as a baking powder box, any boy can make one. First, 
fasten the lid on securely with glue or white lead, and then 
punch a small hole about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, 
through the cover and also through the bottom of the box. Be 
careful to make the hole right in the center, or the top will 
lean on one side and will not spin as long as it would if the 
hole is in the center. Put a thin stick through the holes of the 


7 » 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


box, so as to fit it tightly. The stick should be sharpened at 
one end, to serve as a peg for the top, and should be thicker 
at that end and gradually get thinner as it leaves the peg. In¬ 
sert the thin end of the stick into the hole on the under side of 
the box, and pull it through the top hole until it can be pulled 
no farther. Of course the lower end of the stick must be 
broader than the opening in the under side of the box, so as to 
prevent the box from slipping down. Cut a slit in the side of 
the box. This opening will make the top hum when in .mo¬ 
tion. Procure a small piece of wood about five or six inches 
in length, three-quarters of an inch in width, bore a hole 
through one end, through which a string can be easily passed. 
This you use to spin the top. Wind up the top, pass the string 
through the hole in the stick, which should be held in the left 
hand, and pull the string with your right. If rightly made, 
this top will spin for some time, and will sing well. 

How to See Double.—Roll up a pamphlet to make a tube 
about nine to twelve inches long, and an inch or so across. 
Put this tube to your right eye, and look through at some ob¬ 
ject attentively, keeping both eyes open. Now hold up your 
left hand with its back toward you, and bring it near the lower 
end of the tube, looking at your hand with the left eye, while 
the right eye is fixed on something through the tube. If you 
hit the right position, which you can do, putting the edge of 
the hand against, not over the lower end of the tube, you will 
be surprised to see very clearly the things beyond. It is a very 
easy but most surprising little experiment, and will please old 
as well as young people. You will of course wish to know 
why this is so—why there seems to be a hole where there is 
none. We usually look at the same thing with two eyes, and 
the two images make one in our mind. Here we separate the 
two eyes in an unusual manner, and the mind brings together 
the circle made by the tube for one eye and the hand seen by 
the other, and makes one of them. You can vary this several 
ways. If when looking through the hole in the hand you 
stretch out the left thumb, so that it will be seen by the right 


EASY EXPERIMENTS. 


79 


•eye through the tube, the thumb will appear directly across the 
hole in your hand, Instead of looking at your hand, use a 
card; mark a black spot in the card as big as a half dime, and 
look at it as before; the black spot will appear to be floating 
in the center of the hole, with nothing to hold it there. An¬ 
other variation is to make a round hole in the card of the size 
of the half dime; look at this hole with the left eye so that the 
real hole will be within the imaginary hole; it will appear ex¬ 
ceedingly bright, and surrounded by a ring of shadow. 


NOTE.—The author is the editor and publisher of the 
National Educator, a semi-monthly paper published at 
Allentown, Pa., price, seventy-five cents a year. Each 
number contains directions for making additional experi¬ 
ments. 

He also furnishes the necessary articles for making thess 
experiments, for two dollars. The boxes can be sent by 
express only, the person ordering to pay the expressage. 

A. R. HORNE, 

Allentown, Penn. 


MORRISON’S 


Readings and Recitations 

For Home and school Use. 

IN THREE PARTS: 

Primary, 20 pp. 

Intermediate, 28 pp. 

Higher Grades, 55 pp 

THIS BOOK IS JUST WHAT IS WANTED FOF 

ALL GRADES. 

Just the thing for Country Schools, as something can 
be found in it for pupils of all ages, and for all occasions. 
These selections have been compiled with care, and for 
the most part such as have never appeared in book form. 
While a few are original, all will be new to the majority 
of pupils and parents. Nothing of an objectionable char¬ 
acter can be found, and I believe all will welcome this 
new Speaker. 

Price, prepaid, 30c; 3 copies, 50c. 


A. FLANAGAN, Chicago, 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0 005 756 244 4 

©ROUBLE I 


How to Teach and Study U. S. History, 

$1 

00 

Cook’s Methods in Arithmetic, 


60 

Hunter’s Helps to History, 

- 

40 

Historical Mottoes for the Wall, 12 in Set, 

- 

35 

Excelsior Questions in Arithmetic, 700 on 

separate 


slips of cardboard, 

1 

00 

1000 Ways of 1000 Teachers, 

1 

00 

Monthly Beport Cards, per 100, 

50c. to 1 

00 

Alphabet Cards, 500 letters in box, 

- 

25 

Curious Cobwebs, Nos. 1 and 2, 

- each, 

20 

Hull’s Drawing Sheets, 150 designs, 

- 

25 

Grube Method in Arithmetic, - 

- 

30 

Practical Etiquette, 

- 

40 

Craig’s Question Book, - 

1 

25 

McCormick’s Practical Geography, 

1 

00 


Supplementary Beading Cards, 1st Beador, 10c.; 2d, 12c.; 
3d Beader, 15c. 

Speakers and Dialogues—large variety. 

Beward Cards—A full stock at low prices. 

School Singing Books from 7c. to 50c. 

Gems of Thought, 100 cards in box, 40c. 

Send to me for full Catalogue of Helps for Teachers, 
Speakers, Games, Method Books, Etc. 

A. FLANAGAN, 


CHICAGO. 











































